


Mass Effect: Redemption for the Future

by BluestheCriminalWhirlwind



Category: Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: Action & Romance, Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Character Death, Eventual Romance, F/F, F/M, M/M, Originally on FanFiction.net, Redemption, Regret, Time Travel, Villain to Hero, renegade to paragon
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-14
Updated: 2021-02-20
Packaged: 2021-03-11 02:29:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 5
Words: 34,302
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28077735
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BluestheCriminalWhirlwind/pseuds/BluestheCriminalWhirlwind
Summary: As burning stars filled the sky, A Spectre filled with regrets at his final moments at the crucible. All he wanted was one last chance to change his past and become the hero but thanks to an unlikely source, Commander Rock Shepard is sent hurdling into the past in an alternate universe similar to his own to change the outcome but will going through the battle with Reapers once more change him into this hero? Or will the mistakes he made repeat themselves?
Relationships: Brynn Cole/Jacob Taylor, EDI/Legion (Mass Effect), Female Shepard/Liara T'Soni, Garrus Vakarian/Ashley Williams, Garrus Vakarian/Kasumi Goto/Ashley Williams, Jack | Subject Zero/Miranda Lawson, Jeff "Joker" Moreau/Lia'Vael nar Ulnay, Karin Chakwas/Mordin Solus, Kasumi Goto/Garrus Vakarian, Kelly Chambers/Thane Krios, Lizbeth Baynham/Kaidan Alenko, Male Shepard/Tali'Zorah nar Rayya, Minor or Background Relationship(s), Nyreen Kandros/Samantha Traynor, Zaeed Massani/Samara
Kudos: 13





	1. Metalingus

Tired.

Broken.

Defeated.

These are the words Rockland "Rock" Shepard could describe himself as he sat beside the now deceased Admiral David Anderson, who had the dignity to smile in his last moments.

To those that knew him, Shepard was a force to be reckoned with. His prowess in battle, his unwavering determination, his brutal honesty, his cunning, and his willingness to do anything to get the job done had given him the admiration of his peers as well as his commanding officers but as he sat there next to the dead Admiral, bleeding and tired, all he could think of was 'How did I end up like this?'

Shepard looked at the deceased man by his side and instantly felt foolish for thinking what he thought. His friend...One of the few people who never betrayed him had died and here he was thinking of his own misfortunes.

"I guess I'm still the same as I was years ago in that regard…" He said to himself as he forced his tired body upright on the ground beneath him, achingly stepping towards the console where Hackett's voice came to life...How it did, he couldn't guess but at this moment in time, he didn't care.

"What can I do for you, sir?" He asked tiredly, his legs feeling weaker with each step he took until he fell to the ground with a grunt.

"Shepard? Commander, are you still there?" Hackett's concerned voice rang out into his ear, causing him to weakly groan.

Of course, he wasn't alright. He had been shot at by not only a laser beam that incinerated many but he was shot at repeatedly. The only reason he was still breathing at this point was due to sheer stubbornness to die before his mission was complete.

Shepard groaned weakly as he forced himself to his knees and gasped out "What do you need me to do?"

No matter how beaten and broken he was, Shepard would never let himself give up, especially now that he was so damn close to ending this war between the galaxy and the Reapers. He had to see this through...Just one last time.

Hackett's voice was slowly fading out of the existence of Shepard's mind but he had thankfully heard what Hackett needed and forced himself to his feet but once more, his legs had given up and he fell once more but that didn't stop him...Instead, he dragged himself to console with every ounce of power he had left in his power but as he got to the console, he could feel that his limit was reached, and like a fallen soldier, he laid in the spot he had crawled to, no longer bothering to move.

He could feel that his time had truly arrived as he laid there on the ground.

There would be no Cerberus to bring him back, no one from his ship to find him and take him to Chakwas, nothing. "Ha...I figured I would die alone again..." He murmured tiredly as he slowly turned his body around to face the ceiling only to see the many stars above him.

He didn't know why but as he laid there, blood flowing from his various wounds, a small tear fell from his eye.

He was never a man that had felt guilt for anything that he has done in his life but as he laid there, bleeding out as slow as possible, he began to think of all that he did.

When he was a child, he had felt the darkness creeping into his heart but he had tried to ignore it but when his family was torn apart by those filthy Batarians right before his young eyes, he felt the darkness take over his heart and he held on to it. When he became old enough, he enlisted into Marines, pledging that he would do anything in his power to protect those he loved but he was lying.

He loved nothing back then.

He lived for revenge for the fall of his colony at the hands of the Batarians.

Nothing else mattered to him but killing as many of those filthy creatures by his hands.

And he had finally gotten that chance.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

__

_Standing there in the middle of a room filled with the bodies of batarians and marines alike was a man in black armor with a red stripe going down the right arm of the armor, the blood of batarians falling down the black armor and in the man's right hand was a long saber with a black hilt and an obsidian colored blade that dripped with the blood of his slayed enemies._

__

_And finally, the man was missing his helmet, revealing the short black hair of the man which was matted onto his face by the blood of the slain and the man himself had a crazed, cruel smirk that was plastered on his face and with the one visible eye, it held rage._

__

_Pure rage._

__

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

He could remember all that he had done on that mission. The countless lives he had sent to their deaths to get his revenge and at the time, he did not care for those he sent to die because he refused to let them win again. He refused to let these heartless monsters escape with their lives.

Because of his actions on that mission, he became the "Butcher of Torfan" and because of this action, his commanding officer was honorably discharged and disappeared, but Shepard did not care for his commanding officer. He had gotten the revenge he had craved for so long but he didn't know that this selfish, evil act would set him down the path of despair.

He was the answer to all the missions that had become…Problematic to the military and they knew he was cold, calculating, and ruthless and the military knew he was one of the best.

All he knew was to get the job done at any cost necessary. It went so far that for a few years, he was paired with many more people like him and they became the Black-Ops group named "New Dawn," but he found himself the sole survivor of a trap made by the people who he and his team were going to kill.

Cerberus…

It was after this mission where he was recruited on the Normandy and that is when his life changed for the better.

All he had to do was extract the Prothean beacon but instead, this one mission sent him across the galaxy with aliens and humans alike to hunt down a Spectre named Saren and his synthetic allies, the Geth.

During this time, he kept himself at a distance from all that tried to get to know him.

This was a mission that was of the utmost importance for not only himself to prove to the council that he was the better Spectre, but to himself that he could hunt down this man and kill him.

A lot of sacrifices were made which cost him the life of one of his teammates but Shepard couldn't allow himself to feel remorse, especially after sacrificing his trusted and loyal Lieutenant, Kaidan Alenko.

He had a choice and he made it and that person carried out their final mission as they fled that godforsaken place.

In the end, he killed Saren not only once, but twice, once the Reaper known as Sovereign took over the Turian's body, with the help of a Krogan battle master and the Quarian girl.

But he didn't allow himself to celebrate this victory because a bigger battle awaited him on the horizon and it was something that got his blood burning red hot.

But as the years went on, Shepard could feel the darkness that had grown around his heart grow stronger, which was bad news to both his allies and enemies because after those bugs, the Collectors killed him and Cerberus resurrected him, he was itching for a fight. He enlisted allies, old and new for their fight and even had the chance to kill the Shadow Broker himself but at the end of all of this, half of his team was dead and he was sitting in a jail cell…All because he made the choice no one would and stopped the Reapers from killing them all.

The only solace he could give was that once again, the Batarians felt his wrath.

Then Judgment day arrived.

They blackened the skies.

They were each a nation.

They slaughtered millions.

It was as Sovereign had predicted.

They had existed because the Reapers allowed it and when it all came to ahead, the joint species operation and therefore, every single being breathing in this universe was going to be wiped out because the Reapers demanded it.

They were truly unstoppable and because of this, Shepard grew desperate and because of that, the darkness in his heart grew until he became as cold as the machines themselves. He murdered his friends, those who served with him in the past, whether by gun or his actions, he did not care. The Reapers had to be stopped and they were simply in his way.

He was too late and busy to help Jack and was forced to kill her when Cerberus morphed her into a husk.

He was too late in saving Thane, a Drell similar to himself from Kai Leng.

He shot Mordin in the back to sabotage the cure of the Genophage, effectively forcing the Krogan into extinction.

He betrayed Wrex and then murdered him in cold blood.

He let Samara commit suicide and immediately after that, he shot her daughter in the back as well.

He was too late to save Miranda, Zaeed, and Kasumi from their deaths.

He even had to shoot Ashley when she refused to back down from getting the traitor human councilor.

But out of all these deaths…there were two that haunted him.

Despite the darkness around his heart, two people always bought light into him and the first name was Garrus Vakarian. When he first met him, he really could not stand the Turian at all but by the end of their hunt for Saren, they had become friends. He even convinced the Turian to become a Spectre.

Even when they reunited, their friendship had grown to unspeakable heights but when the raid on the Collector's base happened…Garrus died, taking a shot for him from a Collector.

That was the first thing that set him further down his darkened path.

The second was the death of the woman he had fallen in love with…

Her name was Tali'Zorah vas Normandy….She, this shy little Quarian had snuck her way into his heart through her laughter, her tears, her smile, her strength, her loyalty, and her compassion. She was the best thing that had entered his life but despite this, he couldn't let her get close to him.

He was far too gone for her light and she saw firsthand at how far he had gone when he let her people be exterminated by the Geth.

He could remember the screams, the wailing, the hits she delivered to him due to his choice, and in the end, she took her own life by leaping off the cliff behind her, all while looking him in the eye without her mask.

And it broke his heart.

He could still remember the heartbroken look in her silvery eyes as she gazed at him. How her black hair, freed from her veil, whipped against her face due to the wind, hiding the tears that he knew were flowing down her face from him.

And her last words had stuck with him.

_"I…I loved you…"_

And now as he sat there, staring at the stars before him, more tears fell from his eyes onto the blood beneath him. He had done so much evil in his lifetime and at the time, he was doing what he had to do but now, all he felt was guilt.

He wished that he could go back to change it all.

To change the deaths he had caused.

To change his ultimate destiny of dying alone.

To become something more than a gloried killer.

He wanted to be what Garrus was on Omega.

He wanted to be what Tali was to the Quarians.

He wanted to be the hero everyone thought he was…

But as he closed his eyes, he knew that there was no way he could be any of that.

_'I…wish I could go back to change it…'_

And with that….All went black.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
[Location: Eden Prime  
POV: Rockland "Rock" Shepard]

"The mission is in your hands now Shepard! We're counting on you!" Captain David Anderson roared over the harsh winds of Eden Prime entered the cargo bay as Rockland Shepard, followed by Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko and Solider Richard Jenkins, stood on standby in the cargo bay.

Each of them was armed with a pistol, a sniper rifle, an assault rifle, and a shotgun which were all placed conveniently on their backs, except their shotguns which were placed on the back of their hips.

"We will complete this mission at all costs, Captain Anderson," Shepard's deep, smooth voice replied, his cold blue eyes staring at his captain beneath his thick yellow visor.

With a stiff nod from Anderson, the three soldiers leaped out from the cargo bay and landed in a crouching position onto the ground of Eden Prime and as the three slowly stood up, each of their eyes widened in surprise.

Eden Prime was once called a Paradise to the human race, the crowned jewel of its galaxy, one of the most beautiful places in the universe, but what Shepard knew and read about this place before and what he was seeing now were now radically two different things.

The once clear blue skies were now a blood-red color, the ground, which once was a luscious color green was now faded and crisp brown with splashes of blood on the top of it and as the three men looked upon the horizon, smoke could be seen billowing into the air and the faint screams and gunfire could be heard as well.

"Oh my god…" Shepard's eyes immediately turned to the youngest member of their team with worry hidden in them and he was right to worry. Young Richard L Jenkins had fallen to his knees at the sight of the beloved planet he had grown up from in the state that is was in, with tears threatening to spill from his eyes.

Before he met with the Turian Spectre Nihlus Kryik, Shepard had overheard Richard talking to Dr. Karin Chakwas about his times back when he was a colonist on Eden Prime and despite wanting him to leave the planet, he loved it dearly and Shepard could clearly see that the man was in pain and as much as he wanted to care for the man's plight, he couldn't right now.

He had a mission to do and he would accomplish it.

Nothing more, nothing less.

Shepard's head turned just enough so he could see Richard's fallen form and said with an empty voice "Jenkins, I know the destruction of your homeworld is devastating but we have a mission and we need to get it done….Mourning can wait."

Shepard could see the shock in both Kaidan's and Richard's eyes but as he turned his head away, he heard Richard say in a heated tone "Commander, my homeworld is burning to the ground. My family, my friends…All of them could be hurting…Even dying and that's all you can say to me? That Mourning can wait?"

"We are down here to retrieve the Beacon. Nothing else matters. Not this planet, not these people, not your tears. This mission is my top priority and it should be yours too as well." Shepard knew that the man shouldn't hear these words coming from his mouth.

Especially when the place Richard had grown up was in flames like this but Shepard knew that the man would continue down this path unless he did something now.

He needed his soldier to be focused on this mission and if angering Richard is what it took to get the man to focus, he would do it. The mission was important but leaving his teammate in this distressed state could lead to the man's death and Shepard didn't want that at all.

"If this is too much for you, I will order you to return to the Normandy and await our return…But if you can stand tall and face the ones who have done this to your world, you will follow my orders right down to the letter…"

Despite his words, Richard continued to stare fiercely into his eyes but he stood firm, his jaw clenched and his eyes narrowed. "Now what is it going to be Jenkins? Will you stay and follow my orders or will you leave?" For a moment, Shepard had a strong feeling that the man would take a swing but after the harsh stare down, Richard lowered his gaze and nodded reluctantly.

Giving a nod to the relieved looking Lieutenant, the ground team swiftly pulled out their pistols and slowly advanced down a steep hill, their nerves steeled and their eyes sharp, looking out at any movement that wasn't their own. Soon, the trio came upon a rocky incline in which Shepard's eyes flashed to the two men by his side before signaling the two to hold their positions behind him.

The two men followed his orders and held their positions while Shepard silently moved forward, keeping his back against the mountain next to him, he reached the end and peaked over the side and saw four pair of recon drones. Pulling his head back, he silently signaled for Kaidan and Richard to get behind the two large mounds of rocks nearby but also signaled to keep low and to keep quiet.

Nodding, the two men crouched down and silently walked down the incline, and while Kaidan took the one closest to him, Richard took the one far from both Kaidan and Shepard but as Richard walked forward, forward, his foot had nicked a small mound of rocks, causing them to cascade to the ground as well as alerting the recon drones.

Seeing this, Richard immediately dove behind the stone as the drones began to fire at him, and had he not dived behind that large stone, there would have been a strong chance he would have been killed immediately.

Seeing their chance, Shepard and Kaidan stood up from their protection and shot at the drones swiftly, causing two of them to explode upon the impact of their bullets and the third one to hover wobbly in the air before diving to the ground and exploding on impact.

After a tense second to see if more were coming, Shepard lowered his gun and looked at where the drones were while Kaidan went to Richard and asked if he was ok.

"I'm ok Lieutenant," Richard replied, getting on his feet slowly, an uneasy chuckle playing from his lips. "Thanks for asking. Whew, for a moment there, I thought I was going to-"Just then, another drone popped out from behind them and with sharp reflexes, Shepard turned around and shot it with his pistol, causing it to explode on impact.

"You were saying?" Kaidan said with a relieved sigh, causing Richard to let a blush of embarrassment form on his face but then the two grew serious as Shepard's voice reined them under control.

"Do you two hear that?"

Both men looked at their Commander and strained their ears for whatever he was hearing only to achieve success when they hear the sounds of gunfire nearby.

"I hear it too Commander," Kaidan said before looking at Richard, who nodded in agreement.

"Then let's move…Whatever has done all of this, they need to be stopped…" Shepard commanded and together, the three trekked through the small area of trees until they saw someone with white and pink armor running to take cover while firing back at an unseen enemy only to fall to the ground and that's when the three saw a twelve white-colored robots and one larger red one walking towards her, guns drawn and ready to fire

"Whoa, there's a marine!" Richard said in shock before adding with shock in his voice "And she's running from…Geth?" Shepard's eyes narrowed when he heard Richard say that word.

Geth.

The Geth hadn't been outside the veil for over two hundred years since their war with the Quarian people.

Why would they be here of all places?

"That can't be. The Geth haven't been seen outside the veil for over two hundred years," Kaidan whispered with a stunned look before he and Richard shared a look in concern.

"Until now…" Shepard's eyes narrowing behind his visor as he put his pistol away and pulled out his shotgun and looked away from his team.

Like Richard, he had seen the marine take cover as well before they saw the Geth shooting the outnumbered soldier.

They had to save her.

She may be the key to the answers that they seek.

"Jenkins, I want you on sniper duty until all threats have been neutralized then wait for my command. Alenko, you're with me. That marine must be saved at all costs," Shepard ordered, giving a small nod to Richard before darting off with Kaidan following behind.

Richard took a deep breath and pulled out his sniper rifle and aimed it at the first Geth that was closest to her and with a "This is for my home!" He took the shot and smirked when the machine fell to its knees and onto the ground, sparks flying from its "eye".

"One down…" Richard stated.

Shepard and Kaidan charged forward until they reached a cover and with a single nod, the two leaped from the large rock and charged forward once more, Shepard's shotgun and Kaidan's Pistol screeching to life as four Geth fell to the ground, oil, and sparks flying from their shells as the bullets slammed against them.

Shepard ran forward and slide behind another rock and switched out his shotgun for a pistol and shot at the next to Geth that was heading in their direction before leaping over the rock and tossing a grenade at the closet Geth and after a quick explosion which luckily managed to catch another Geth as well.

He leaped from his spot when the smoke cleared to see one Geth dead, another one crawling and one Geth just getting out of cover so, with a small sneer, he ran towards that Geth and jumped up to knee it in its head before wrapping his legs around its head and firing three shots into it, felling it instantly while Jenkins managed to take out the second Geth that was still crawling around without its legs.

Shepard then rolled off of the dead Geth's body as it was falling and landed into a kneeling position and pulled out his assault rifle and shooting up the third Geth's body until it fell in two then with another fast switch, he returned his shotgun into his hand and as the dead Geth slowly split apart to reveal another one aiming, Shepard fired twice, instantly making it crumble to its knees in defeat.

He then switched his shotgun into his sniper rifle and aimed directly at the red Geth's head and fired one clean shot, sending it flying back to the ground as its head practically shattered from the impact.

Switching one last time back into a pistol, Shepard rolled into cover as three Geth appeared, firing at him but Kaidan's biotics flared, and with a thrust of his hand, a wave of purple energy flew from his hands and towards the three Geth, sending them off of their feet where he and Shepard threw a grenade at the three just as they were getting up.

After the explosion and a tense moment of silence, Shepard and Kaidan lowered their weapons, panting softly. The battle was over for now but as the two turned around, one of the Geth they had thought they had killed was slowly walking behind them, limping but as it lifted its weapon, a bullet collided with its head, shattering it upon impact.

Kaidan and Shepard turned around at the sound of the body dropping with surprise in Kaidan's eyes but a calculating look on Shepard's but that's when they heard Jenkins' voice on their intercom, saying "Sorry for the scare Commander. I got that thing good, didn't I?'

Instead of responding to the bragging tone in Jenkins' voice, Shepard's head turned to the Marine in the pink and white armor and said "Get down here Jenkins. We have a survivor."

"Understood Commander," Came Richard's reply through the headset.

His calculating eyes then turned to the Marine in the pink and white armor who was now standing before him and Kaidan, her mouth opening to thank them for helping but at the moment, he did not need her thanks.

He needed answers so with a small glare beneath his thick yellow visor, Shepard asked the woman "Marine, I have two questions for you. What is your name and rank and what is going on here?"

The woman paused for a moment, a little taken aback by the harsh tone in his voice but she answered "I'm Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams Sir." She gave a quick salute before she lowered her hand and continued "And at the moment, Eden prime is being attacked by the Geth," Shepard didn't acknowledge Richard running up behind him but continued to stare at the woman before him, waiting for her to continue.

"It all happened so fast, sir. One moment, everything was normal then the next, hell. It all started when this shadow flew over the area then seconds later, the Geth struck…My whole platoon was wiped out from the sudden ambush…I'm the only one left."

"Gunnery Chief, we are here for the Beacon. Can you lead us to it?" Shepard asked her crisply, ignoring the haunted look the woman had displayed when she told him and his squad about her platoon.

Once again, he knew that this wasn't the right thing to do to someone when they were upset but he knew that the more they kept focus, the easier things were for the person.

Ashley looked as if she had gotten punched in her stomach when Shepard didn't even bat an eye about her platoon being wiped out but instead of lashing out like she wanted to, she simply nodded her head, saying "Sure…Just follow me."

Shepard nodded and kept his pistol held tightly in his hand as he, Kaidan, and Richard followed him.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"This is the dig site…Damn it, the beacon was right here!"

Shepard's hidden eyes flashed up to Ashley's form when she spoke, his jaw clenched lightly. "It must've been moved somewhere else…" Richard said with a deep frown on his face.

"I agree but the question is, was it moved by the Geth, or was it moved by our side?" Kaidan asked, his arms crossed in thought.

"Hard to say," Ashley answered, falling silent for a moment before adding "Maybe we should head up to the research camp. Perhaps we'll find our answer there."

Shepard nodded in agreement, his eyes still gazing at the spot where the beacon was supposed to be. This wasn't how this mission was supposed to go at all and it was frustrating him even more now that the beacon was missing.

"Do you think there are any survivors there?" Richard asked her, his eyes flashing to hers with a hopeful look shining through them. Ashley saw the hopeful look in his eyes and as much as she felt that she was the sole person alive here, she also held some hope that there were some survivors.

"God I hope so….If there are survivors, they could be hiding in the camps, it's located just up this ridge, up the ramps," Ashley answered.

Shepard looked at the three in front of him just as they looked at him and for a moment, he stayed silent but then he gave them a nod, saying "Then let's move out."

With Ashley in the lead, the four-man squad walked up the ramps with their weapons drawn up to the research camp but as they walked, Kaidan murmured to his team "It's a good place for an ambush, let's keep our guards up."

Richard opened his mouth to say something but then he stopped dead in his tracks, his head tilting to the left.

"Do you guys hear that?" He asked his team.

Everyone stopped and looked at him.

"Hear what?" Kaidan asked, confusion littering his eyes.

"That static sound…" Richard answered.

The group went silent and they were all surprised to hear the faint static sound as well. "It's faint but I can hear it…" Ashley said while Shepard gripped his gun tightly.

Something was wrong.

"Let's keep moving," Shepard responded after a moment, his eyes steeled and ready for anything but as he walked forward past Ashley and towards the camp, he saw eleven black spikes going high into the air with…a body impaled upon it.

"Good god, what the hell is that?" Richard asked with a horrified and disgusted tone in his voice, his pistol now raised.

Suddenly, one of the spikes began to descend towards the ground until it stopped on the platform, revealing a bald, blackened body with glowing blue electrical wires infused with its body which seemed to lead to its four brightly glowing blue eyes.

Slowly, it leaned off of the platform and placed its feet on the ground, its body hunching forward and its arms slung low. "Oh my god, it's still alive!" Kaidan exclaimed harshly as he held his pistol towards it.

"What did the Geth do to them?" Ashley roared with anger as her shotgun was aimed directly at it.

Suddenly, the thing's head turned and saw them and let out a loud, static-y shriek and started to charge forward towards them. The four Marines aimed at it and fired at it repeatedly but each bullet only seemed to slow it down for a moment before it continued forward.

Finally, Richard pulled out his rifle and aimed at its head, and fired one shot, effectively stopping it for good. "What the hell did we just stumble upon?" Kaidan asked with a shuddered breath after a moment.

Suddenly, the remaining nine spikes began to lower rapidly, revealing the same forms that they had just killed and with a unified shriek, they all charged forward.

"A trap," Shepard responded darkly as he lifted his assault rifle and aimed at the closest one's head, sending it to the ground effortlessly before charging forward to take down two more but when he managed to kill the second one with five bullets to its chest and one to its head, the third one had gotten close enough before hunching forward, its arms holding its body tightly as its wires glowing brightly until electricity cackled violently around its body.

The static-like noise coming from its mouth was getting higher and higher while its arms stretched out to its sides and without warning, a large bubble of an electrical wave exploded outwards from its body, knocking Shepard off of his feet as well as overheating all of his weapons but before he could get to his feet, the unholy creation leaped in the air towards Shepard, only to get flung back from a bullet hitting its chest.

Hearing a "Got the bugger commander!" Instantly told Shepard who had made the shot and once he got on his feet, he saw another one of those beings coming towards him, he ran forward and gave it a brutal clothesline with the butt of his assault rifle, sending it slamming to the ground where he pulled out his pistol and shot it point-blank into its head, shattering it upon impact.

Ashley and Kaidan swiftly followed suit and started to aim at these beings heads, with Kaidan taking down two more and Ashley taking down three while Richard kept his distance and used his Sniper rifle to take out the remaining one that was getting closer to his location, ending their brief but terrifying scuffle.

"I think that was the last of them," Ashley said to Shepard, her voice distant but it held a slight tremble. Shepard realized that she could have known these…things that used to be human beings but he refused to say anything; instead, his eyes flashed to one of the doors in one of the buildings nearby.

The door panel was glowing red instead of green, indicating that it was locked.

"Everyone, there's someone in that shed over there," Shepard exclaimed with a frown on his lips.

The three Marines looked towards the door and saw the red door panel and then looked at Shepard. With a single nod, the four of them, with their weapons still drawn, walked over to the panel.

With a look towards Kaidan, the Biotic nodded and hacked the security lock, turning the red panel to green with a hiss, the door swiftly slid up, opening the door.

With their guns still drawn, the four of them entered the room to see a young twenty-five-year-old Caucasian woman with short red hair, black eyes, with a white and blue uniform standing next to a tall, gangly middle-aged Caucasian male with balding brown hair, black eyes and a uniform similar to the woman.

When the door opened, the woman turned around and let out a surprised gasp, initially terrified before letting out a sigh of relief. "Humans, thank the maker," She said with a small smile on her face.

"Hurry, close the door, before they come back," the man whispered harshly with an almost hysterical tone in his voice said as he stepped forward next to her.

"Don't worry, we'll protect you," Richard said with a wide smile on his face but that smile faded away when he stared at the woman. She seemed very familiar to him but he couldn't place her face anywhere just yet.

The woman seemed to smile more at this but she shook her head, saying "Thank you but we'll be ok now. It looks like everyone's gone."

Ashley's face scrunched up in concentration for a moment before realization dawned on her. "You're Dr. Emily Warren. The one in charge of the excavation," Ashley said with a small hint of anger in her voice but Shepard knew it wasn't the doctor she was angry at.

The woman, now known as Emily, gave a short nod, saying "Yes, that's me."

Richard's eyes lit up in surprise when the woman confirmed her identity and suddenly, he stepped forward with a bright smile and said "Hey Emily, do you remember me?" Emily's head tilted to the side for a second before she beamed and wrapped him up in a tight hug.

"Richard! Oh my god, I can't believe it's you!" she exclaimed as he hugged her back, confusing both Ashley and Kaidan but annoying Shepard.

"You know each other?" Ashley asked with amusement in her voice.

Richard and Emily broke away, both with subdued smiles on their faces. "Yes, Richard and I grew up here. We were best friends until he left for the Alliance Military," Emily answered with a nod, her eyes going back to Richard's, who was currently smiling happily down at her. "I'm so glad you're ok. Do you have any news about everyone else?"

"None yet I'm afraid. Everything had happened so fast, I hadn't even had a chance to reach out to anyone else on the planet…So many lives were lost today Rich…I just hope our families are ok," Emily whispered while pulling away from him with a small smile on her face.

Richard nodded in agreement and opened his mouth to say something but Shepard's voice cut through the room with "Gunnery Chief Williams said you were in charge of the excavation. Does that mean you know where the Beacon is currently?"

Emily nodded softly and replied with a small shaky voice "Yes I do. It was moved to the spaceport this morning. Manuel and I stayed behind to pack up the camp. When the attack came, the Marines held them off long enough for us to hide…They gave their lives to save us…"

Shepard saw Ashley look down at the ground with a small frown, no doubt remembering those things they had encountered, knowing those were the Marines that had tried to stop the Geth.

"No one is saved," Manuel's voice suddenly exclaimed, his hands clenched together tightly as his eyes closed. "The age of humanity is ended. Soon, only corpses and ruin will remain."

Richard slowly turned his head to look at Emily with a look that read "Is this guy serious?"

She could only sigh.

"What else can you tell us about the attack?" Kaidan asked Emily while eying Manuel suspiciously….Just in case the man got jumpy.

"It all happened so fast…" Richard placed a comforting hand on Emily's shaking shoulder, causing her to still with a small smile of thanks towards him before continuing with "O-One minute we were gathering our equipment, the next minute, we were hiding while the Geth swarmed over the camp."

"Legions of destroyers, Bringers of Darkness, Heralds of our extinction!" Manuel added causing Kaidan and Shepard to stare at him while Richard continued to comfort his friend.

"We c-could hear it outside…" She continued, despite her colleague's interruption. "Gunfire, screams. I thought it would never end…Then it just got quiet. The two of us just sat here alone, too afraid to move…Too afraid to breathe…." She paused and stared into Richard's face. "Until you arrived…"

Rolling his hidden eyes, Shepard tapped his foot loud enough to get her attention and asked "Did any of you see a Turian come here?"

"I saw him!" Manuel whispered in a harsh, delirious voice. "The Prophet, leader of the enemy. He was here before the attack!" Shepard, Richard, and Kaidan all traded a look while Ashley looked confused.

What the hell were they talking about?

"But that's impossible," Kaidan said softly to Ashley, who turned to him in confusion. "Nihlus was on the Normandy with us before the attack. He couldn't have been here."

"I'm sorry," Emily broke into the conversation suddenly, making all eyes turn on her. "Manuel is still…Unsettled. We haven't seen your Turian. We've been hiding in here since the attack remember?"

The three men nodded before Shepard asked "Can you tell us anything about the Beacon?"

"It's…Some type of data module from a galaxy-wide communications network. Remarkably well preserved. It could be the most scientific discovery of our lifetime. Miraculously new technology, groundbreaking medical advances, who knows what secrets could be locked inside?" She explained, her eyes shining up lightly, causing Richard to laugh.

"She's always like this when she finds something new and exciting," Richard explained with a teasing grin.

"Oh? Like you weren't when the Alliance personally selected you to join?" she retorted with a grin, causing him to laugh slightly more, seemingly taking some edge off of her nerves.

But Manuel made sure to change that when he interrupted with "We had unlocked the heart of evil, We have awakened the beast! We have unleashed…The Darkness…" He ended with a low but terrified whisper.

"Manuel please…This isn't the time," Emily said calmly but clearly her voice was clearly strained.

Richard's eyebrow rose a little more before he finally asked "What's up with him?"

"Well, Manuel has a brilliant mind but he's always been a bit…Unstable. Genius and madness are two sides of the same coin;" She explained with a heavy sigh.

"Is it madness to see the future? Is it madness to see the destruction rushing towards us? Don't you all understand there is no escape, no hope?" Manual stated with anguish in his eyes before he then stepped forward in front of Shepard with a shake of his head, his eyes lowered towards the ground before looking up at Shepard's face, saying "No…I am not mad, I'm the only sane one left!"

"I gave him an extra dose of his medication after the attack. Hopefully, after everything has settled, his meds should kick in and put him to sleep," She said but seeing his mouth about to open again finally clicked on Shepard's nerves.

"I have a way to put him asleep now," Shepard announced just before his fist slammed into Manuel's jaw so hard, Manuel was unconscious and snoring before he hit the ground.

"Oh my god! Why did you do that?" Emily exclaimed with surprise and horror in her voice.

"I did it because he could have easily done something rash…And I didn't want to take his life if he did," Shepard replied calmly.

"I…I suppose you're right…" Emily said with a sigh.

"We're done here. Williams, take us to the spaceport," Shepard commanded.

With a salute, Ashley walked out of the shed first, followed by Kaidan and Shepard but just as Richard was about to leave, He heard Emily call out to him so, with a turn of his head, he stared at her with a smile.

"I know, I'll be careful…You always worried too much," Richard said as Emily stepped towards him to give him a brief but strong hug.

"With good reason…Be safe…" She whispered, adding a small little peck to the side of his helmet.

Richard smiled at her and broke away from their short embrace before nodding and running off, leaving her and her sleeping Assistant alone. "Now…Let's get off this planet, Manuel."

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Richard ran down the steps of the shed and ran up to his squad just as a loud "bang" was heard all around them, causing all four of them to share a look of confusion at this while Shepard grimaced, feeling that bad feeling in his stomach once more.

"Everyone, let's move out!" he ordered before jogging off, causing his team to follow but as they turned the corner and ran on the dirt road, that's when they saw it.

It was a very large, squid shaped black ship with red bolts of electricity shooting up its body as it slowly began to shoot up into the air. "What in the hell is that?" Kaidan asked.

"Whoa…" Richard said dumbly.

"The fuck is that thing?" Ashley asked.

Shepard had no answers for it but he had a feeling that things had just gotten worse.

And Shepard was right.

Once they hit the Space Port, they had found a deceased Nihlus Kryik laying face up on the ground. His eyes wide open in surprise and his mouth slacked open as well.

"I guess that answers our question about Nihlus," Kaidan said with a wry grin, given a salute to the fallen Spectre, along with Richard but Ashley merely frowned at the dead turian before looking away.

Shepard had spared the Turian a look and a nod of respect but something had caught his attention so with his pistol drawn, Shepard shouted "Get out here before I put you down!" the others, suddenly hearing the threatening bark from their leader, drew out their guns too, with Ashley adding the sound of her cocking her shotgun for good measure.

Within seconds, a man walked out from behind the crates with a scared expression, and with a sigh from all of them, they lowered their guns slightly, reading for anything else to happen. The man had explained what had happened between Nihlus and another Turian named Saren.

"Saren…" Shepard murmured with a wondering tone in his voice but the man continued, telling the four that he saw Saren heading down to the tram station but just as he finished, a gunshot rang out and the man's head suddenly whipped to the side as blood splattered on Ashley's white armor, causing her to shriek in surprise before she, Shepard and Kaidan turned their guns on the Geth that had taken the shot while Richard kneeled to check on the man, the three Marines shooting it until there were multiple bullet holes in its body but another Geth walked from behind the wall and was also taken down without a blink of the eye.

"He's gone Commander," Richard said after the three stopped firing, causing Shepard to grunt in annoyance at the only lead to the case being taken.

"As well as our only witness to Saren killing Nihlus…We must move…" Shepard stated while frowning heavily.

The three nodded at Shepard's command but as Shepard, Richard and Kaidan ran off, Ashley stayed behind to give a small prayer to the dead man before running off after her squadmates.

When she rejoined them, the three males were on the tram, hiding behind the many seats that were there. When she got close to the tram, she was forced to take cover as a bullet whizzed by her helmet, making her swear in surprise while pulling out her shotgun, firing and killing the Geth that had tried to take her out.

"About time you got here," Richard exclaimed with a grin as his pistol screamed into the air, shooting one Geth in the arm, knocking its gun out of its hand, and swiftly shot its head, defeating it as Kaidan used his biotics to have them floating in the air so Shepard could shoot them until the two Geth that were floating were nothing more than scrap metal.

Shepard then leaped over the seat, his knees landing on the soft and comfortable cushioning of the chair while he pulled out his assault rifle, and with a satisfied grin, he fired at the larger Geth that was barreling through the aisle towards them, making it stumble back with each hit it took until it finally fell to its knees then to the ground in defeat.

"I think that was the last of them," Kaidan said with a pant, his right hand grazing his helmet while his eyes clenched in pain for a moment before he slowly opened his eyes as Richard placed a hand on his shoulder with a small smile, causing the marine to smile in return.

"Thanks," Kaidan said at his friend's wordless comfort.

Ashley looked at the two for a moment with a small smirk written on her face but she didn't say anything. Instead, she turned around and faced Shepard, who was at the tram's console; his hidden eyes narrowed in concentration, and said "Do you think there are anymore Geth waiting for us?"

"I wouldn't be surprised, given that every time we go deeper into this place, more and more Geth seem to be around every single corner…" Ashley nodded at this before looking up at the sky, a bitter sigh leaving her lips. "Good…These Geth bastards fucked with the wrong planet…and the wrong team," Ashley hissed out.

That made Shepard smirk even more as the tram began to move forward

Unbeknownst to any of them, thanks to the tram's movement, one of the Geth's that were mercilessly ripped apart from the combination of Kaidan's biotics and Shepard's shotgun single eye began to glow dimly and with a small noise, it began to pull its destroyed upper body up to a shotgun that one of its comrades had left behind.

"It's no problem Kaidan. You're my best friend after all" Richard replied with a smile, unaware that the Geth was trying to lift the shotgun with its one arm.

"And when did I agree to be that?" Kaidan asked, amusement twinkling in his eyes as they gazed upon his friend, not seeing the Geth slowly aim at his back.

"When you pushed me across the room with your biotics that was pretty fun," Richard gleefully said with a wide grin but then he saw the Geth raising its gun at Kaidan's back.

Without thinking, Richard pushed Kaidan aside while pulling out his pistol and yelling "look out!" but as just as Richard performed this action, the Geth had fired, not only tearing through Richard's shields but Richard's armor as well.

Kaidan, Shepard, and Ashley could only look on in muted horror as Richard

was sent stumbling backward and slamming into the ground with a loud "slam", making them all realize what had happened.

And only a second later, the Geth lowered its weapon and the glow in its eye slowly faded away.

"No!" Kaidan shouted in horror as he scrambled to his feet and ran to his friend, who was coughing and hacking in pure, agonizing torture. "Come on Richard, stay with us!" Kaidan shouted while scrambling to find some Medi-gel but to his horror, he was unable to find any on his person.

"Guys! I need a Medi-gel!" Kaidan screamed at Ashley and Shepard before looking down at Richard only to see Richard gasping, blood dribbling down his lips.

It was then that Kaidan knew it was hopeless.

It was far too late to save him.

"I-I'm so sorry…" Kaidan whispered to his friend, tears falling from his eyes.

Richard took several more breaths and gripped Kaidan's hand that rested on his chest and gripped it hard, fear shining in Richard's eyes but then the light faded away and Richard went limp.

Ashley shut her eyes as whispered a soft prayer as Shepard watched Kaidan lower his head on top of his friend's forehead, tears falling from his eyes.

But Shepard didn't feel anything.

He had seen many of his friends pass away under intense circumstances and unlike him, his team, or his sister, he didn't allow it to affect him. He had a mission to complete and he would see it to completion. "Alenko…Unless you want the Geth or Saren to succeed in their plans, we need to get to the beacon…" Shepard responded coldly, causing Kaidan's head to turn to him with a heated glare on his face.

"Can't you show some emotion Commander?! One of your squadmates has been killed!" Kaidan shouted tearfully, anger laced in his face.

"He has," Shepard responded, allowing his voice to soften ever so lightly. "But if we don't get to the Geth…If we do not stop them, his death would be in vain…Do you truly want that to happen?"

Kaidan looked down at Richard's cold expression and after a few seconds, Kaidan shook his head and laid Richard's head down on the pavement below and shut the deceased man's eyes, whispering "I'm sorry Rich…Watch over me, ok?" And that was when Kaidan stood up, Richard's blood coating his armor, and took a deep breath.

"Let's keep going…Commander…" Kaidan said in a calm, eerie tone and with that, both Kaidan and Ashley walked away, leaving Shepard behind to stare at Richard one last time, and merely nodded his head in respect before walking away.

Richard may have annoyed him at times but he was a true soldier and for that, he would make sure his body was returned to his family with full honors.

As the now three-man squad drew closer to a platform where the tram lied, they saw a single Geth kneeling on the ground, tinkering with something only to lifts its head to see them approaching…which was soon taken off its shoulders by Shepard with his sniper rifle.

Once the tram stopped, the three jogged over to the down Geth and saw that its body was covering something.

Moving its body with his foot, Shepard's eyes narrowed.

It was a bomb.

Luckily, it was unarmed due to his preemptive strike but he realized that Saren and the Geth were trying to destroy the place. He didn't know why but it didn't matter.

"Everyone! We need to keep moving. They're trying to blow this place up!" Kaidan and Ashley looked alarmed but Ashley was the first one to respond.

"Let's kick some asses!" Ashley shouted while pulling out her Shotgun

The three of them quickly trekked into the area with their guns drawn and their eyes open, crushing any opposition that came between them and their mission but as they moved forward, they managed to deactivate three more bombs until finally, they were at the beacon where ten Geth and several husks remained.

"Ashley…" Shepard said with narrowed eyes.

Without a word spoken, Ashley pulled out her sniper rifle and kneeled on one knee, aiming directly at the Geth trying to activate the bomb.

With a single shot, the Geth was struck and it fell forward in front of the bomb, catching the attention of the surrounding Geth and Husks, which wailed and charged forward while the Geth armed their weapons and began to fire.

Shepard and Kaidan ducked for cover and fired at the army of Geth and the husks, managing to down five of the Geth as well as two Husks in the barrage and that's when they ducked down to avoid getting hit.

When it sounded as if most of their weapons had overheated, Shepard shot a look at Kaidan before saying to Ashley "Provide cover fire," before he leaped over the railing and landed on the ground, his assault rifle immediately coming to life as he began spraying rounds of ammunition at his opponent, killing six Geth until it overheated.

Shepard then pulled out his shotgun and took one shot, downing a Husk as he simultaneously dove for cover, just as they were beginning to fire. "Damn, shields are down," He muttered to himself as the bullets slammed against the steel crate that was covering him.

Seeing his Commander in danger, Kaidan pulled out his pistol and vaulted over the railing as well, landing into a roll where he shot a Geth point-blank in the chest and as it fell, Kaidan took its pistol from his hands and rolled into cover where he then took aim and fired both pistols, killing three of them before tossing one to Shepard, who then rolled out of cover and killed another two Geth and a Husk that had gotten to close.

Not to be outdone, Ashley jumped over the railing as well and landed with a "thump" before running forward to one of the husks and slamming her elbow into it hard before killing two of them with two shotgun blasts and just as the first one was getting back on its feet from behind her.

Seeing A the last Husk coming towards her, Ashley ran forward slammed her shotgun at the last Husk's chest hard, sending it to the ground where she then stepped on its chest and fired at its head in point-blank range, whispering "Forgive me."

Ashley took deep breaths as she stared at her kill before removing her right boot from its chest while saying, "I think that's all of them…" she then huffed and placed her shotgun on the back of her hip after giving it a slight pet before turning her head to the beacon, which was glowing an eerily green, much to her confusion.

"The beacon wasn't doing that when we dug it up…" She murmured to herself as Kaidan walked up behind her and touched her shoulder, making her jump slightly.

"Oh, sorry about that," He murmured before looking at the beacon and saying with awe in his voice "Whoa, a real Prothean Beacon right in front of our eyes…Richard would have loved to see this…"

Ashley looked at Kaidan and wanted to say something but she couldn't find the words so instead, she nodded and placed a comforting hand on his shoulders, silently offering him relief from losing his friend and silently, he nodded, knowing if anyone was feeling the same hollow feeling he was, it was the Gunnery Chief.

Shepard let out a deep breath of relief after making the call to Joker to pick them up along with the beacon, enjoying the feeling of success he had for completing the mission but it did have sacrifices.

As Shepard slowly walked towards his team, he noticed that Ashley was eying the beacon but suddenly, he saw her body jerk forward, accompanied by her shriek of surprise.

Ashley looked back at both Shepard and Kadain with a panicked expression. Kaidan immediately grabbed for her arm but the pull was too strong so with a yell of panic, Ashley slid out from Kaidan's grasp and flew towards the beacon.

Thinking quickly, Shepard rushed forward, swerving past Kaidan and grabbed her by her arms, and flung her to Kaidan, who caught her successfully. Shepard then found his own body flying backward and then forcefully turned around by the beacon and just as he got close enough, his body was lifted into the air.

Panic filled his veins as he struggled for a moment to break free of the invisible grasp this thing had on him but that's when he saw it.

With an emerald border around the edges of his eyes, Shepard saw that himself lying on a platform soaked with blood, tears pouring from his eyes as he began to take his final breaths but then, a small, light blue ethereal child appeared standing before him.

 _"This…This was quite the disappointment…"_ The being sighed out while looking down at Shepard's form.

Shepard watched on in confusion.

What the hell was he watching?

 _"This simply won't do…You got this far only to fall…I wanted a better outcome…"_ It was then the being placed a hand on the dying Shepard's chest as it said _"I think I know what to do…_ "

The watching Shepard's eyes widened in shock as he watched the dying Shepard's body began to glow a bright green before it began to break away into particles that floated in the air and that was when Shepard saw something that shocked him.

He saw these large…metal squid-like ships firing red beams of energy at a ship that looked a lot like the Normandy before causing it to exploded in a brilliant explosion, causing fear to shoot through his body but then when saw the green particles fly towards him at top speed.

He watched as green balls of energy came shooting towards him and before he could do anything, the orbs of light slammed into his body, causing sharp visions to fill his mind in such rapid succession, he couldn't keep up with them even if he tried and to make it worse, each vision that filled his mind made the headache he now worse than ever before until finally, the beacon exploded in front of him, sending him flying back to the ground with a crash.

But as he laid there, drifting into unconsciousness, Shepard heard the voice of that strange being in his head, who whispered, _"I have given you a second chance…Let us see how far you get this time…"_

And with that, it all went black


	2. Of Awakenings and reunions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A meeting of enemies, a meeting of friends, and multiple shootouts all across the Citadel. Shepard's first day in a new, but familiar, universe.

_"Where…Where am I?"_

_Shepard found himself floating in a sea of dark blue crystal water with little balls of light floating up from it with the sky above him colored midnight blue with tons of stars glittering the sky above._

_This confused him._

_The last thing he remembered was staring at the stars in the crucible while slowly bleeding out and now he was in this place. How the hell did this happen?_

_Shepard leaned up from the water and looked around._

_The entire place looked honestly beautiful with the sky reflecting from the water with tiny rainbow-colored crystal shards floating from the water and into the sky towards the glowing moon above._

_The ground was a bright white that reminded him of the snow that used to fall on his colony but when he touched it, he was surprised that it was grass._

_Grunting, Shepard stood up and looked at the area he was in, and for a moment, he felt at peace but he felt saddened as well._

_He didn't belong here at all...It was too beautiful and pure for someone like him to see its beauty…_

_"But where is here?" Shepard asked himself with a saddened tone in his voice._

_"This is our meeting place…Commander Shepard…"_

_Hearing the familiar but echoing voice come from behind him, Shepard swiftly turned around to see an ethereal silhouette of someone he had longed to see but was long gone by now._

_"Tali?" Shepard whispered as he reached out to the figure but to his surprise, he stumbled and was sent flying straight through here and onto the ground and when he turned around, he saw that she was entirely ethereal and glowing a soft light blue with small, white sparkling orbs floating around her._

_Shepard was taken aback by seeing Tali after all this time but now; he quickly realized that this wasn't Tali at all. This was something else entirely but he didn't feel nervous around this…thing._

_"But why am I here?" He asked the silhouette softly while keeping his gaze on it._

_"Because I wanted to see the one I believe in," The being said as they sat beside him. Shepard's gaze fell on the silhouette next to him but to his surprise, instead of the ethereal Tali, it was an ethereal version of Garrus that was standing next to him this time._

_"But who are you?" Shepard asked the being before him, his eyes narrowing in confusion._

_The silhouette merely chuckled before its gaze turned from Shepard to the moon above, a gentle smile forming on its face. "The one who gave you this second chance at life…" The figure told him gently, shocking Shepard immensely._

_Second life?_

_What was this being talking about?_

_Did this figure have something to do about how he ended up here?_

_"You're truly an interesting figure Rockland," The being said to him, causing Shepard to blink in surprise._

_How did this person know his first name?_

_"When we first heard of you from our spies within the universe, we honestly thought nothing of you. You were a simple human not knowing your place…But when you killed our fellow reaper Nazara, which is admittedly our more…Reckless of Vanguards, we grew notice of you and that only rose when we saw you defeated our pawns, The Collectors as your species named them and then you were brazen enough to halt our arrival for a season."_

_The being then let a wry grin form on its face as it said "Even when we arrived, your tenacity continued to infuriate us. Many of our pawns and even a few of our own were struck down by you and your team…But imagine my surprise when I see that our enemy, the one being that we had begun to see as a legitimate threat was slain by someone other than our hands. It bothered us greatly."_

_"So, you brought me back to life just to kill me yourselves?" Shepard asked, completely confused by their logic. The indoctrinated Illusive man was of their doing and had supplied his death and Harbinger had started his downfall when he took a beam of energy from the Reaper point-blank range._

_The being chuckled at this and said "I have been around for millennia, watching as countless organics and synthetics were harvested to create the beings known as "Reapers" to solve an issue long created by my creator. But as I watched you, or I should say, processed your memories, I have seen you rally both organic beings and Synthetic beings under the united banner of war to fight against us, something no one in several cycles has ever done. I was curious to see how it all would turn out once you arrived, but your life was lost…"_

_Shepard looked away with a troubled expression, but he then asked, after a moment of silence "Why? It's obvious that you lead the Reapers…Why would you bring back the one person who seeks to destroy them?"_

_The being was now an ethereal form of Thane Krios, who merely chuckled and explained "I decided to return you to a different time, specifically when you were at a Beacon our recent harvested cycle, the "Protheans" your cycle called them because I believe you are the key to fully merging organics and synthetics."_

_Shepard's head whipped towards the being, who was now shaped as an ethereal shadow of Ashley but its body glowing a bright white which slowly enveloped the area._

_"Do not mistake this as an act of kindness…The Reapers will arrive and they will harvest as they are supposed to do…Only this time, you know of all that will happen to this universe and its inhabitants…and you will be the answer to my question and maybe even the catalyst of our defeat."_

_"Wait! This universe?!" Shepard asked in alarm._

_The being merely smirked at this, something that looked more on the ethereal form of Joker, the pilot of the Normandy, Mark 1 and 2. "Even a machine like myself cannot bend space and time. The best I could do is send you to a universe like your own but be prepared. There will be differences, but the threat is all the same."_

_At this point, the entire area was bright with white light but somehow, Shepard could see the small smile that was on the being's face, which to his horror, was an ethereal version of his deceased mother, Hannah Shepard._

_"This will be the last time we speak until the arrival of the reapers….For what it is worth….I believe you can be the key that unlocks the answers I seek…Until we meet again, Rockland Shepard…"_

_And everything went white._

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Location: The Normandy  
POV: Rock Shepard]

Shepard's body rose from the bed with a sharp gasp, his short black hair sticking to his face, covering the small, jagged scar that split his left eyebrow down the middle, his hazel eyes small and unfocused, his breathing shallow and quick. Slowly, he closed his right eye as his left one became half-lidded, his right hand flying to his head, sweat dripping down his face.

With a gasp, Shepard rose from his bed, breathing heavily as sweat poured down his face.

Where the hell was he now?

Shepard looked around the room he was currently in.

The room was a platinum blue color with several beds lined up against the wall with tons of medical equipment lined up against the walls. Shaking his head, Shepard got up on his two feet, which felt a lot lighter to him for some strange reason. Ignoring the intense headache, Shepard walked towards the mirror in the med-bay and took a look at himself, and gasped in shock.

What he expected was his glowing, scar filled face and a large scar that went down from the top side of his right forehead to the middle of his right cheek but instead, he saw the face of a pale Japanese-Caucasian male that still had a boyish charm to it despite his age of twenty-five years old.

Touching his face with his right hand, he pulled at his skin, and to his surprise, no lines filled with flames appeared and as he looked at his eyes, it wasn't a glowing ominous red.

Instead, it was an ocean blue and that startled him greatly.

He had not seen those eyes in such a long time and to see them now after so many years unnerved him.

Before he could truly figure out where he was, he heard someone awfully familiar shout "Doctor Chakwas! He's awake!"

His eyes flashed to the form of Ashley's Williams but then his eyes flashed to the head doctor of the Normandy, Karin Chakwas' form, his chest rising slowly and his eyes focusing on her form. The last time he saw her, she had been assimilated at the Collector's base along with everyone that was kidnapped by them.

She was alive!

Wildly, his eyes shot back to Ashley, who was staring at him in concern and it was then he realized that she was alive as well. The last he saw of her was when he himself shot her in cold blood to get to that backstabbing Cerberus dog, Udina.

Slowly, elation filled his veins as the realization began to set it.

The being was telling the truth.

Somehow, he had returned to the past.

"You had us worried Shepard. How are you feeling?" Chakwas asked with concern filling her voice, causing the stunned Shepard to glance at her.

"I'm not feeling so hot, but I will live…How did I get here?" Shepard asked slowly.

Chakwas move towards Shepard with a worried frown on her face and said "You were out about Fifteen hours. Something happened down there to the Beacon I believe," Chakwas then started to prod at his face, which caused the commander to wince in annoyance due to the light in her hand blinding him.

Despite the shock and even joy of her being alive, Shepard really did not like a lot of people in his personal space, but it was her job, so he needed to let it go for now.

"It was my fault Commander," Ashley suddenly spoke up, her head lowered in shame, almost like a puppy who had been hit in the nose with a rolled-up paper which caused him to look at her with a quirked brow. "I must've activated some security field when I touched it. You pushed me out of the way…You saved me…"

Shepard looked at her from the corner of his eyes and asked her "Where's the Beacon now? What happened to it?" before wincing when Chakwas shined a light into his other eye.

"The Beacon exploded…" Ashley answered. "A system overload maybe. The blast knocked you out cold. We all thought you would be out for a few days from the way you landed but looks like I was wrong…" She then looked back down to the ground, remembering how he was during the mission.

But just as Shepard was about to speak, Chakwas interrupted with "Williams and Alenko carried you back to the ship." Shepard's eyes gazed upon Ashley's form and gave a nod of gratitude along with a small smile, making her look down at the ground with a faint blush dusting her cheeks.

"So…" Shepard started while looking at the doctor. "Did you find anything wrong?"

"Physically, you're fine," Chakwas started while crossing her arms beneath her breast before she continued with "But while you were resting, I detected some strange brain activity. Abnormal data waves. I also noticed an increase in your rapid eye movement. Science usually associates it with intense dreaming. I also detected that your heart rate had increased to terrifying levels…Shepard…What did you see in your dream?"

The dream Shepard had immediately formed into his head and he paused.

He had a strong feeling that no one would believe his dream about coming back to the past but at the same time, he knew Chakwas would not let it go unless she got what she wanted so he had to do something.

Then that is when it hit him.

This is the past…So why shouldn't he start it out that way?

Shepard's eyes gazed down at the ground as his headache slowly returned. "I don't know…What I saw…" He answered slowly, making sure to make his voice as confused as possible then he continued with "I-I…Saw death…Destruction…The end of all life…but nothing's really clear though…" He finished lamely while looking at the ground in thought.

'That should give her enough to keep her off my back,' Shepard thought as he stared at Chakwas with as much innocence as he could. Chakwas raised her left eyebrow at him in suspicion but he then added "Don't worry about it, I'll be ok. Maybe a little rest was what I needed."

"Hm, regardless of that Shepard, I may have to add all of this to my report before I hand it to Captain Anderson then study you some mo-" Suddenly, the doors to the med-bay opened.

And a few moments later, Captain Anderson, with an air of authority, briskly walked inside of the med-bay with his hands connected behind his back, ignoring Ashley's presence, for the time being, immediately asking Chakwas "How's our XO holding out down here?"

"He's doing fine. His readings are normal. I think the Commander will be fine," She answered her Captain with a small smile, causing him to smile as well.

"I'm glad to hear it. Thank you, Doctor,…Now Shepard…" His eyes flashed to Shepard's sitting down, a concerned look flashing across his eyes for a moment before changing to a cold look. "Can we speak…In private?"

Taking the hint, both Chakwas and Ashley left the room with the latter saying "Aye, Captain. I'll be in the mess hall if you need me," as well as giving him a salute, leaving the two males alone in the med-bay.

"Sounds like that Beacon hit you pretty hard Commander. Are you sure you're alright?"

As Shepard looked at the Captain, a vision of Anderson in a camouflage uniform sitting by his side, bleeding from the left side of his torso, a small gentle smile on his face as he died.

Shepard could only stare at the man before in surprise but then he stood up and gave him something that he had never given the man before.

A salute.

From the surprised look on the older man's face, Shepard knew the good captain was shocked to receive one, but Shepard did not care. He was going to change things this time around and the first thing he was going to change was to not let this man die again.

"I'm doing ok Captain…A little banged up and disoriented but I will be ok," Shepard said with a small chuckle as he stopped his salute.

"That is a good commander. I'm glad to hear that everything is alright, but I am surprised. You'd usually question me if another crew member were added on our ship."

Shepard blinked at Anderson's words then he remembered Ashley.

When she appeared on the Normandy in his timeline, he was annoyed as hell due to her pissing him off during the mission on Eden Prime but now, after knowing what a skilled soldier she was, he would not dare question it but just to keep Anderson from suspecting anything, Shepard did say "I just realized that Gunnery Chief Williams is onboard the Normandy sir…"

Anderson chuckled at this while he crossed his arms in front of his chest. "I figured we could use a soldier like her, so I reassigned her to the Normandy. Is this a problem Shepard?"

Shepard shook his head while saying "Not at all, I saw what the Gunnery Chief could do back on Eden Prime and despite not showing it, I was impressed by her actions. She kept fighting strong, despite losing her entire squad to the Geth…Williams is a good soldier. She deserves being aligned with the most powerful ship in the Alliance,"

"Lieutenant Alenko agrees with you which is why I added her to our crew..." Anderson said with a nod and a small smile which then faded away when Shepard said "Intel really dropped the ball on this one. We had no idea what was to happen down there."

Anderson turned his head to Shepard and told him "The Geth hasn't been outside the Veil for two centuries Shepard. No one could have predicted this, but I won't lie to you, Shepard. Things look bad. With Nihlus dead and the Beacon destroyed and the Geth have appeared outside the veil and are invading, the council is going to want answers..."

"Why should we tell them?" Shepard asked with a small scowl on his face.

"Knowing how they operate; they'll obviously think the mission failed due to the Alliance's incompetence instead of the faulty Intel that screwed us over and sent us to hell and back. I didn't do anything wrong," Shepard had never liked dealing with the council.

To him, they were a bunch of stuck people politicians that believed that just because they were in power, they could look down on everyone else, especially if they were not the same species as them. Shepard believed in treating everyone fairly, even if it meant hating everyone equally and he did not realize it until now that he would have to deal with their shit again!

Damn it!

"I'll stand behind you and your report Shepard. Despite Nihlus's death and the destroyed Beacon, you did good Shepard. You got your team out of there safely as well as saving a few survivors...You're a damned hero in my books. I'm proud of you."

Shepard gave him a light smile that quite did not reach his eyes as he responded with "Thank you sir, but I didn't get all of them out alive…" He did remember from the Shepard he had cruelly taken over that Jenkins had perished but what surprised him was by how far they were when he was killed and he had to admit, Jenkins was a very competent soldier, and he knew he would be just as missed on this Normandy like the last.

Especially by Kaidan.

But it was sad that despite coming back, he still did not get the chance to save the good soldier.

"I know Commander, Private Jenkins was a good man and a good soldier. We have given his body to his family, who luckily survived the attack on Eden Prime, and he will be getting a hero' send-off for his services," Anderson said while placing a hand on his shoulder, causing Shepard to nod absent-mindedly.

"Good…He truly deserved it but…Do we truly need to report to the Council about this?" Shepard asked, getting back to the main subject at hand.

Anderson nodded softly and said, "I know you do not like the Council Shepard, but they must know what's happened on Eden Prime, especially if Saren is responsible for all of this."

Shepard let a grunt and leaned back on the bed he was sitting on. "Saren...That's the name of that Turian that man had mentioned before he died. Who is he?" Shepard asked, staring at Anderson for an explanation.

"Saren is a Spectre. One of the best, a living legend but if he is truly working with the Geth, then that means he's gone rogue and a rouge Spectre is more dangerous than anything in the galaxy and what's worse is that he hates humans."

"Why?" Shepard asked, despite knowing his enemy very well.

"He thinks we're growing too fast, taking over the galaxy. A lot of aliens think that way, but most don't do anything about it but Saren might be working with the Geth. I do not know how or why but I have a feeling that it was all because of that Beacon...Tell me, Shepard, you were there before the Beacon was destroyed. Did you see anything? Anything at all?"

Shepard closed his eyes and thought about the visions that he had seen from the Beacon and then relayed them to the Captain who nodded his head as he listened and when he was done, Anderson let a soft sigh leave his lips and said "We need to report this to the Council Shepard..."

"And tell them what exactly? That I had a nightmare? Do you really think they would believe that?" Shepard asked.

"I don't know but whatever was in that Beacon, Saren took it. I know him Shepard; I know his reputation and his politics. He believes humans are a curse on the galaxy. This attack was an act of war. He has the secrets of the Beacon and an army of Geth under his command and he will not stop until he wipes every human off the face of the galaxy."

"Then we need to find him and take him down for good," Shepard said with determination in his eyes which he knew from his past that would be snuffed out after his captain's next words.

"It's not that easy," Anderson told him. "Saren is a Spectre. He can go anywhere, almost do anything and that is why we need the council on our side Shepard. I know you don't like it but it's the only way..."

"I know Captain..." Shepard replied faintly, clenching his fists. "I doubt they will help us because if Saren is a legend as you say, then they will try to back him up but it's the only option we have at the moment." And as much as he knew about Saren's guilt, he knew firsthand that they would need proof of this.

Then a small smile formed on his face.

They would have the proof and he knew exactly who had it.

Anderson nodded at this and uncrossed his arms before saying "Good. I will contact Ambassador Udina to see if we can get an audience with the Council. He will probably want to meet with us the moment we land. We should be getting close. Head to the bride and tell Joker to get ready to bring us into the dock."

Shepard gave the man another salute and watched him walk off but the moment he did, A marine Shepard didn't recognize marched up to him and said "Commander Shepard! You have someone wishing to speak to you!"

Shepard was confused and he voiced that confusion, asking "Who?"

The man blinked and said, "Why your sister, Jasmine Shepard, Captain of the Titan sir!"

A sister.

Shepard had a sister…

In his universe, he knew his parents had died during his youth.

Hell, he even saw those damn Batarians bastards rip them apart so how were they alive?

"Uh…Sir?" The young Marine questioned. "Should I tell her you're busy?"

Shepard shook his head with a small frown then replied "No need. I will see to what my…sister needs…" It was even stranger to say those words. Taking a small breath, Shepard asked for the marine to lead him to the phone, and with a crisp salute, Shepard was led to a large screen in the meeting room and there he could see her.

She had long black hair with a streak of dark blue in her hair, pale skin with three freckles on both cheeks, blue eyes that were brighter than the sky on earth, and finally, she had on a black tank-top with the kanji for "Hero of the Blitz" on her shirt colored in white. He watched as her smile widened happily as she said _"About damn time, Hey Rocky."_

Shepard narrowed his eyes.

He did not like that nickname.

"Don't call me that," Shepard told her with a cross of his arms, causing a laugh to leave her lips, eyes shining playfully.

 _"Such a broken record,"_ She said while leaning back in her chair, lifting a soda bottle to drink it. _"But it is good to see you, little brother. It's been a few weeks since we last spoke, how was Eden Prime?"_

Shepard paused.

Were he and his sister close because he knew from experience that he would never talk to anyone about his mission that wasn't his commanding officer, but he decided that he would open up just a bit, knowing this small step would start his change into a better man. "Lost a squadmate but gained a new one in his place."

There, that should be enough information to keep her curiosity sated at this moment.

Lucky for him, it was because she said _"Well, shit like that happens…Like right now, I'm down here in Omega trying to find some Cerberus assholes and to plug some holes in the alliance. So far, I lost two good men to them, but I refuse to lose anymore."_

"I certainly hope you get them, Jasmine," He replied after staying silent for a moment.

He should be worried that Miranda or Jacob is in her sights due to getting to know the two of them quite well during his time teaming up with Cerberus but at the same time, remembering the carnage they would later make when the Reapers arrive, he hoped she killed many of them.

He just had to hope Miranda or Jacob would not get killed.

"But right now, we're heading towards the Citadel to report back to the council about my mission, and truth be told, I'm not exactly thrilled…" Shepard told her, trying to hide the irritation from her but from the smirk on her face, he could tell she knew how annoyed he would be, and he had a good reason for that.

The council had always been against him since he accused then proved to them that Saren was a traitor and it only got worse from there and it pissed him off enough that when he had the chance to kill them, he practically had to stop himself from killing them but that did not matter, did it? They still treated him like a sub-species.

It was not until the Reapers came and slaughter their races when they realized he was right all along but to go through all of that again was truly testing his patience. _"Hey Rocky…It'll be fine. Just try to get through it as best as you can and please…Don't do what you did to Barrett…They don't deserve that."_

Shepard blinked.

What the hell was she talking about?

Before he could ask, he watched as she suddenly said _"Now listen up, I have to go and suit up for my mission. When I am done, I'll go straight there so we can meet up at the Citadel and drink a bit."_

Shepard merely smiled and nodded, sort of looking forward to knowing the woman who was suddenly pushed into the role of "sister". "I can't wait, until then…" Shepard said before giving the captain of the Titan a salute, causing her to give a lazy one back before winking, and with that, the screen clicked off.

So…So far so good.

He hopefully left a good impression on his sister and when they met, hopefully, he could find out more about his past…But it is truly odd that he now has a sister, but he was warned that this universe was different than his own, but this was a major difference.

What is next?

Ashley being raised by Quarians?

"We're approaching the mass relay heading towards Citadel Space. ETA, five minutes so everyone, please place your trays in the upright position, buckle those seatbelts, and brace for instant travel. If not, please puke in the bathroom. I don't want to smell that from up here," Joker's voice rang out over the intercom.

Shepard had closed his eyes to keep himself from rolling them due to Joker's words but merely chuckled and looked out the window as he neared the mass relay and while his thoughts were on meeting his sister but then he realized something.

He would be meeting his best friend and the love of his life when he arrived there as well.

And that thought truly made him smile.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Location: The Citadel  
POV: Rock Shepard]

"Well, that turned out well…." Ashley murmured in annoyance as she and Kaidan followed their silent commander down the steps of the Presidium, the three marines' faces looking a little glum while Shepard's jaw was clenched, and his hands balled into a tight fist.

Things were…Strange this time around.

The meeting had gone about the same as last time and like last time, two of the three councilmen were assholes like Shepard knew they were, but it was the Asari Councilwoman that confused him.

In his time, she followed behind her councilmen without a second thought but in this alternate timeline, she seemed to believe them and it was her that asked for the evidence to prove Saren's guilt.

"I know Ash, it's like they thought this was some joke. It isn't right," Kaidan added with a sigh.

"It was like they were protecting that asshole," Ashley murmured angrily while punching into her open palm.

"Maybe if that dock worker on Eden prime had survived, that would have made our case against Saren a little stronger…" Kaidan commented with his left arm propped on his right, his left fist resting on his chin in thought.

"Not really," Shepard responded almost immediately, stopping in his tracks, making his squad do the same.

"Even if he lived, I'm sure the council would've disregarded his statements as well. Face it, Saren is their top Spectre and has his own race on the citadel...Who's backing him up and until we find some hard evidence of Saren's involvement with that damn massacre on Prime, He could no doubt walk away and continue his plans…"

And Shepard meant this.

The last time he encountered this; the dockworker had lived and was immediately discredited as a witness due to him being shaken with fear.

"Well, ain't that a kick in the balls," Ashley commented with a wry smirk on her face, her hands planted on her hips before asking "Well, what do we do now?" before anyone could answer that, they were joined by Udina and Anderson, both wearing a scowl on their face.

"It was a mistake bringing you into that hearing Captain. You two have too much history. It made the council question our motives," Udina spoke with barely hidden contempt, his arms crossed in front of his chest.

"I know Saren," Anderson responded defensively with a pensive look on his face. "He's working with the Geth for one reason, to exterminate humans. Every colony is at risk. Every world we control is in danger, even Earth isn't safe," he said with fire in his voice.

"Permission to speak freely, Sir?" Kaidan asked with a quick salute to Anderson, who nodded in return. "How is it that you know Saren?"

Anderson sighed at Kaidan's question and merely responded with "I worked with him on a mission a long time ago. Things went bad...Real bad..." Shepard, who was listening in silence, knew there was more to this story, but it wasn't his concern.

He had heard it all before.

No sense in listening to rehashed situations.

Instead, he put his thoughts to good use by thinking about what was going to happen next. He knew that Anderson and Udina would send them to Chora's Den, but would things play out the same as they did in his universe? He could only hope at this point because it would give him a better chance to change things but if things were too different, how could he change it to the outcome he found desirable?

"But I know that he's dangerous...And that he needs to be stopped before it's too late," Shepard zoned back in just as Anderson finished his speech and gave a small sigh. He was not going to get any answers waiting here. He needed some peace to think about his plan of actions and this was not the time nor the place.

"Well, isn't this lovely..." Ashley muttered with annoyance before speaking up with "Well, what do we do now?"

"Due to his Spectre status, Saren's pretty much untouchable right now. We need to find a way to expose him but how? That is the issue we are all facing."

Suddenly, Shepard's head had snapped up with an idea in his head. He knew exactly the person they needed now and with a small grin on his face, he said "What about that C-sec officer? Garrus Vakarian I believe. I remember when we were coming here that he was talking to the Executor about his case on Saren. He may have been close to finding something out about him."

"Hm... Then he's our best bet right now but how can we find him?" Kaidan asked with a scratch of his head.

"I believe I know just the source," Udina replied with an all-knowing smirk on his old, worn face.

Anderson must have known who the Councilor was referring to because he let out an annoyed grunt and said "You mean Harkin, don't you? Do not bother; he is a sorry excuse of a C-sec officer who got caught drinking on the job. I wouldn't waste my time on that loser."

"That's good because I don't need you for this," Udina replied with a turn to the captain's direction, causing Shepard and his team to frown at this. "Don't take this personally Captain Anderson but I don't need the Council to use your history with Saren as an excuse to ignore any information we could wind finding. Shepard and his team will handle this."

"Hey, hold on, this is the Captain's case just as much as ours," Kaidan said, stepping forward towards Udina with a frown on his face.

"Yeah, you have no right to just cut him out of this case," Ashley added while she turned her head towards Udina's direction with a piercing look causing Udina to take a step back in a slight panic.

Anderson let a small smile appear on his face, but he raised both of his hands in surrender, saying "Back down team. He is right. I need to step aside…" With that being said, the three marines nodded with Kaidan falling back in line behind Shepard and next to Ashley.

"Thank you for calling your hounds back Captain," Udina said with a faint quiver in his voice, completely unaware that the marines grew angrier at the fact he called them "Hounds", but the man merely cleared his throat and continued with, "Harkin's probably getting drunk at Chora's den, a dinky, dingy little club located down in the lower parts of the wards. Just be careful, I wouldn't call him reliable."

"Five credit chits that he's some sleazeball," Ashley whispered to Kaidan and Shepard, causing the two men to chuckle before Udina began to talk again.

"Good. Now you four best be on it. I and Anderson have some business to discuss in my office, come by when you find something." And with that, the two walked off, leaving the three-man squad alone.

"Well, team...We have our mission. Let us get to it," Shepard said after a moment of silence, causing the team to reply with a nod.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If anyone were to ask Shepard, the atmosphere of Chora's den was disgusting to him.

The place was dark with multicolored lights shining all over the place with fog covering the ground, the smell of the place reeked with cigar smoke and there were stripper poles in many areas of the place with a mix of human women and Asari, wearing some spandex that left nothing to imagination dancing around them or some just dancing on bare tables.

In all honesty, Shepard could not remember where Garrus was during this time due to him going to C-sec to get Wrex first after an agent for the Shadow Broker had helped locate the Krogan and wound up finding Garrus elsewhere after getting Wrex to help so he was out of his element.

"Wow...I don't know whether this is funny or just plain sad," Ashley exclaimed quietly to her two fellow marines.

"Hm? What are you talking about Ash?" Kaidan asked as he raised his eyebrow in curiosity.

"Well, we're millions of light-years away from earth, standing in the most "prestigious" place in the known universe and here we are, standing in a strip club, watching strippers shaking their asses in front of their male clients...And here I thought we had evolved."

Shepard had to smirk at Ashley's words but did not respond to them. Instead, his eyes spotted a familiar hulking red armored Krogan coming near them and that is when a whisper of a name floated into his head.

_'Wrex...'_

If there was one thing Shepard was guilty about was how he did the Krogan. He forced Wrex to kill off any chance of getting the Genophage on Virmire then outright crushed the dreams of a cure when he killed Mordin and sabotaged the cure himself to get the help of the Salarians during the early part of the war.

Wrex found out of his betrayal and confronted him about it and Shepard outright lied to him then did not hesitate to kill him when things were not going his way.

All Wrex had ever done was help him on his hunt for Saren and even opened his home to Shepard and what did he do to repay him? The worse thing he could ever do to him…

"It'll be different this time…. I need it to be different…" Shepard whispered beneath his breath, not aware that Ashley had overheard his words and stared at him in confusion.

"Get out of my way humans; I have no quarrel with you," The Krogan told them with his voice low and heavy voice, walking past them without sparing them a glance.

"What was that about?" Ashley asked.

"Who knows," Kaidan responded. "All I know is that he didn't sound very happy."

"Does any Krogan?" Ashley asked in jest.

Hearing her words, Kaidan simply grinned at this and said in a humoring tone "Well, it depends if you can tell the right jokes. I hear they love Turian and Salarian ones most of all."

As Shepard listened to his team's little banter, he found himself smiling a little, liking the interaction his team was having with each other, but he had to cut it short by saying "Now, we're burning time here team, let's find this Harkin so we can continue with this mission. "

The two marines nodded and split up to find the man. Lucky for Shepard, he managed to find Harkin quickly, who immediately began talking when he got closer to the table.

"Alliance military huh? I could have been a military man myself but instead, I decided to join C-sec. The shittiest mistake I ever made."

"I take it you're Harkin," Shepard responded with a dry tone. If there was one thing, he did not regret during his time in his universe was Garrus killing him during his search for the traitorous Sidonis. Harkin was one of the most lowlife men he had ever met…Next to the Illusive man himself of course.

Harkin merely grinned at this and offered the seat across the table to him, but Shepard continued to stand and stare at the balding man. Finally, Harkin responded with "That's my name. What do you want Marine?"

"I'm looking for a C-sec officer named Garrus Vakarian and I heard you might know where he is," Shepard explained to the man, who began to laugh boisterously.

"Garrus huh? That means you must be one of Anderson's boys. Poor bastard still trying to bring Saren down, eh?" Harkin said with an amused laugh, causing Shepard to shut his eyes in annoyance at the braying coming from this man's mouth.

"Look, do you know where Vakarian is or not?" Shepard asked with a hint of annoyance in his voice. He already knew that Harkin knew the good Captain, but he really didn't care. All he wanted to know where his target was before they lost their shot at finding him.

"Yeah, I know where he is," Harkin replied but then he smirked, "But answer me this, did the Captain let you in on his dirty little secret?"

Shepard merely stared a bit more before saying "I really don't see what Anderson has to do with this and let's be honest, I don't even care so give me Vakarian 's location..." Shepard said with aggression shining in his voice, preparing himself to act if Harkin didn't supply him with the information.

"Oh, but it's all related don't you see? The famous Captain Anderson used to-" Before Harkin could continue, he found a gun inches away from his face.

"Enough...Give me Vakarian 's location or you can tell your little tale to the wall with your blood," Shepard said dangerously, cocking his gun for extra incentive. Normally, he would not resort to tactics like this at all, but this man had been witling down any patience he had for the peaceful route.

He was lucky Harkin was located at the back of the club in the darkest corner. Otherwise, the bouncers could have seen him and kicked him out before he got the Intel which would have been bad for everyone involved. "A-alright! I'll tell you!" Harkin squeezed out in fear.

"Good answer. Now, where is he?" Shepard demanded with his eyes narrowed.

"L-Last I heard, Garrus was seen snooping around Doctor Michelle's office. She runs the med clinic up in the wards! Now let me go!" Shepard nodded and quickly returned his gun to its rightful place before a wry grin formed on his face.

"Thank you for the information, Harkin...Have a nice day," With that, Shepard quickly walked away from the sleazy officer and left the club, his squadmates quickly following him when they saw him leave.

"So, I'm guessing you found Harkin?" Ashley asked after catching up with Shepard.

"Yeah…" Shepard replied before a very faint grin appeared on his face when he remembered what Ashley had said earlier. "The guy was a real sleazeball."

Ashley merely smirked.

"Well, someone better pick the phone because I fucking called it!"

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"You know something Commander…I'm starting to think going into these hostile environments will become something of an occurrence with us."

Shepard couldn't help but let a smirk appear on his face from Ashley's words as he slid against the wall in the red light covered alleyway, barely avoiding a stray bullet that was aimed at his head.

A few minutes ago, The three-man squad had descended the wards to Doctor Michelle's office where they had found her being held hostage by a group of men in a standoff with the very Turian they had been looking for.

The moment Shepard drew his gun and killed the man holding the good doctor, an all-out firefight ensued but luckily, Garrus had grabbed the doctor and tossed her into cover as Shepard and his gang dealt a swift but bloody death to them.

Thankful for her life, Doctor Michelle gave them the information that she had recently patched up a young Quarian girl who had been shot a few days prior.

The minute Shepard had heard that a fleeting voice had invaded his mind as well as a vision of a Quarian girl standing in front of him, her arms wrapped around his waist, her head tucked underneath his chin.

em"Wherever you go Shepard…I will always follow…"/em

Shepard let his hands ball up into a fist, a scowl firmly implanted on his face. "We need to get to Fist…But we will need some help…I know of a certain alien that also has an issue with the good warlord…"

"The Krogan?" Ashley asked, immediately thinking of the large behemoth.

Shepard's eyes narrowed with a rather savage smirk on his face.

"Of course…The Krogan's have an old saying…" 

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"…Seek the enemy of my enemy, and you will find a friend. It is not a saying I normally follow but Fist has been a knife in my side since I got here," Wrex said with a rather savage smirk.

"So will you join us?" Shepard asked, his hand extended towards the large alien.

Wrex snorted and clasped hands with Shepard and responded with a sarcastic tone "I didn't bring up an old proverb just to say no, now did I?" Shepard snorted at Wrex's smart ass response but it couldn't stop a smile from threatening to spill from his face.

He had managed to get Wrex to join him once again but this time, he will make sure the warrior's trust was not broken. Once the group left C-sec, they found Garrus waiting for them near Chora's Den but it was then Shepard remembered something and it caused his blood to boil.

He remembered that while they had been dealing with Fist, Tali had nearly been killed by his men and they arrived in the knick of time.

He did not want that close of a call, especially now that he knew that this universe had a lot of differences to his own but as he had looked at the door that held a large empty room where Chora's den was located next to which would lead him to Tali's meeting spot, he was now at a crossroads.

He had to get there but once again, he needed to make sure that he was subtle about it so as soon as Wrex finished his speech about killing Fist, Shepard turned to Garrus and asked "Tell me Garrus. Where is the best spot on the Citadelthat shady people can have meetings?"

He watched as Garrus paused, his head tilted in thought before saying "There's an alleyway behind the markets down in the wards known as "The Bloody Road". It's kind of a popular place due to the lights as well as various criminal activities such as drug distribution, underworld meetings, prostitution, slave trading, and murder so we have to check on that place often. Why do you ask Commander?"

"Think about it…" Shepard began. "A scared Quarian looking for a haven at the citadel with Information about the Geth that could prove Saren's guilt, then being wounded under mysterious circumstances? Something's afoot with this picture and that area would be the second-best place to start.

"That makes sense..." Garrus agreed. "The Bloody Road gained its status as an underworld meeting place and with Fist being the first since the Quarian needed to set up said meeting in the first place…"

"I think we have a strong guess where our mystery guest is…But now that we know that, what are we going to do?" Ashley asked.

"Simple, we'll split up. Ashley, you Kaidan and Wrex go into Fist's place while Garrus and I go to the infamous alleyway," Shepard commanded while Garrus stood next to him.

"Alright, but what happens with Fist? " Ashley asked.

Wrex and Kaidan turned to Shepard, who merely looked at the three and replied with a cold tone in filling his voice "Do what you do best..."

The implication was clear.

"How can you say that Commander? True, Fist wasn't a saint but he didn't deserve to die, did he?" Kaidan questioned.

Another thing that surprised him.

In his timeline, Kaidan would obey an order without a blink of an eye but here, he is outright questioning him…How funny….But regardless, if there was one thing that would never change is that as long as he's breathing and in charge, his orders are law and no one was going to change that and it was time this Kaidan knew that.

Shepard turned to the angered Kaidan then narrowed his eyes at the man as he said "Look, Fist has racked up enough sins to fill two lives. Right now, he may be the reason we lose our only key to what Saren is doing because whatever his goal is, the fate of millions across the galaxy is in danger and at this moment, we are the only ones that can stop it," His eyes then stared directly at Kaidan's as he said "And if we need to kill a few worthless criminals like Fist to save everything we care for then so be it. Now, if you have an issue with his Alenko, You can be assigned to a new ship…"

The two men stared at each other for a long time but Kaidan lowered his eyes with a resigned sigh leaving his lips as he said "I understand…Commander but what now?"

"Simple…Do what you do best," Shepard responded before he and the Turian walked away from the group and towards the door that would possibly lead them to Tali.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[POV: Garrus Vakarian]

Garrus had led Shepard to the meeting spot but just as the three entered the alleyway only for them to quickly move back out when they spotted a dozen armed men standing in the alleyway, weapons in hand but thankfully, there was no Quarian insight...Yet.

"It seems you were right after all Commander, They were setting a trap for the Quarian…Amazing gut instinct…" Garrus murmured under his breath with a tone of approval, pulling out his weapon after seeing Shepard arming himself.

Garrus watched as Shepard sneered darkly while he pulled out his assault rifle and responded with "A trap that needs to be dealt with…swiftly…." and without any time wasted, the three moved out of their cover and began to fire their weapons.

A few of their rounds managed to strike the shields of the armed men, which all of them turned around and fired back, causing the three trained men to retreat behind the wall.

With a nod from the human, Garrus watched as Shepard tossed out a smoke grenade into the alleyway and waited for it to explode and once it did, Shepard slid from his position and walked into the smoke with Garrus behind him, both of their weapons ready to unleash hell on the next person they see and moments later, a salarian in white armor was running out from the mist with his gun trained on Shepard's back.

Before Garrus could move, Shepard suddenly turned to his left and rammed his fist against the helmet of a salarian, knocking the salarian back into the wall where Shepard swiftly pulled out his pistol and fired one clean, point-blank shot before turning to his comrade and said, "I don't want to injure the Quarian if she stumbles upon this mist so disarm them and deal out their just rewards for firing upon us."

Garrus couldn't help but shiver at the way the kill took place.

He was trained to dispatch his enemies when in a firefight but never in an upfront, cold manner that Shepard had just displayed and not just that, the way he gave the orders without so much batting an eye about killing someone like that was unsettling the marine but he had to put the sudden harshness of Shepard's mood aside to get the mission done but he didn't think he had it in him to be so…Merciless.

"Understood Shepard," Garrus told him, shaking off his shock. Garrus knew what it meant to do anything to get the job done even if the way it was done was deemed unjust to some people so he would let this man set the orders and he would follow.

Suddenly, the sound of gunfire filled their ears and their shields suddenly flared to life and with a unified scowl, the three men dispersed, and while Garrus dove for cover, Shepard leaped over a different crate while throwing a grenade at the thugs shooting at them before landing on the ground back first.

The two heard the thugs scrambling to get from behind the crates but a loud explosion ensued and through the red smoke, the two watched as five men came flying from the smoke and while two fell to the ground and slide between Shepard's and Garrus' crates and while three of them slammed against the wall behind him, accompanied by a sickening crunch made from the hard impact.

Shepard looked at the fallen men next to him as well as behind him and scoffed at their defeat before leaping over his crate to shoot the remaining fighting enemies with his assault rifle, taking a few down effortlessly while Garrus fired his pistol at the fleeing men heading up the alleyway stairs, making them stagger for a moment before falling forwards on the stairs.

But as he did this, one of the salarians that was sent flying by the grenade earlier was slowly coming to and saw Shepard standing on the crate with his gun firing repeated rounds, taking out his fleeing teammates.

The salarian reached out his shotgun that he had dropped due to his unplanned flight and slumped back against the wall, and slowly aimed it at Shepard's back.

Garrus saw the salarian aiming at Shepard's back, and with a twitch of his mouth, he fired at the salarian repeatedly, watching in grim satisfaction as the body jerked with each impending shot until the salarian dropped his weapon and slumped forward, his final breath leaving his body.

Garrus watched as Shepard turned around, hearing the shots behind him, and saw the dead salarian then turned to see Garrus' gun still hot from the shots fired from it and he let a faint small form on his face.

"One less to worry about," Garrus said while holstering his gun.

"Thanks, I nearly got my ass blown off there," Shepard said with a relieved grin on his face while Garrus chuckled and walked up to the human with a grin of his own on his face.

"Well, I always seem to be in the right place at the right time. Just don't expect me to be that damn good all the time," Garrus smoothly replied while sitting down on the crate behind him, causing the laughing Shepard to do the same.

_"Keelah…"_

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[POV: Rock Shepard]

When Shepard heard that one-word echo down the now bloody alleyway, his body became rigid, his eyes became unfocused, his heart began to dance against his chest and his breathing slowed to a stop as his eyes slowly looked up to see the owner of that voice.

He…He had heard that voice…So many times since that cruel mission that he had somehow found peace with them but to now know that the owner of that voice was standing at the stairwell behind him. Shepard took a shaky breath while his eyes clouded over, her words that he had heard during his mission to stop the collectors began to flow into his head like a whisper.

_"I want to feel your skin against mine."_

_**"I've watched you for so long…"** _

_"I can stay behind…"_

_"I'm standing right here"_

_"I've never shown my face to anyone…"_

_"Where ever you go…I will follow."_

_"I want more time…"_

As her voice came pouring into his head like gentle raindrops back on earth, Shepard finally took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down and get his thoughts in order so he could introduce himself to the scared woman but with each step he took, the whispers of her voice began to get louder in his head.

_"I have a shotgun"_

_"Are you still interested?"_

_"Spiders!"_

_"But I want to show you…Without dying of course."_

_**"But I never imagined that you would ever…"** _

_"I have a home..."_

_"..And I'm babbling like an idiot."_

_**"See past…"** _

_"Come back to me…"_

_"Keelah se'lai"_

_"…This."_

The moment he was fully standing before her, Shepard just wanted to scoop her up into his arms and never let go of her but as he stood before her, staring into those familiar, beautiful silvery eyes that were looking at him in confusion, it seemed to trigger one more sentence within his head but unlike the others that made him feel as if he was in a dream, this was a cold dose of the reality of his actions in his own timeline.

**_"….I loved you…"_ **

Hearing those three words in that tone that rang out his betrayal of her, the guilt immediately consumed him as her death replayed in his head, and slowly, he could feel something welling up in his eyes.

Was it tears?

Taking another deep breath to quell the dark emotions that were going to swallow him whole, a smoothed voice Shepard asked "Hello Miss, are you the quarian that Dr. Michelle treated a little while ago?"

"Yes, t-that's me…Who are you? W-What happened here?" She asked with a light nervous stutter which caused Shepard to hold back on a small laugh. He found her nervousness to be very endearing to him.

He missed it…More than he thought he did because for a moment, he forgot to speak but luckily, he found his voice once more and continued with what he had to say.

"I'm Commander Shepard of the Normandy. Behind me is C-Sec officer Garrus Vakarian and we are here to talk to you about something," He responded, introducing the Turian behind him with a point, causing Garrus to merely nod in her direction.

"L-like what?" She asked, his eyes gazing past the three heavily armed men to the bodies of the deceased men behind them warily but then her eyes snapped right back to the Commander's thick yellow visor.

It was bizarre how much she stuttered.

The Tali in his time was shy of course but she was also a smartass, shotgun-toting, strong teammate.

Was this another thing that was different in his time?

"We heard that you had information about a Turian Spectre known as Saren as well as the ge-"

"How did you hear that?" she interrupted with a nervous tone but before Shepard could answer her, all of them turned to the stairs to see Ashley, Kaidan, and Wrex coming down behind the steps behind her, only to stare at the bloodbath behind the four people.

"Whoa, Commander, you were right to come here first," Ashley told him the moment she saw him, which made everyone look at the trio.

"Yeah Shepard," Wrex agreed with a grunt before adding "Turns out that Fist was luring the Quarian into a trap but it seems that you deactivated it. How impressive," Wrex then grinned and placed his shotgun onto his shoulders.

"And what of Fist?" Garrus asked.

Kaidan's eyes flashed to Wrex before turning to the Turian to say "Wrex had a contract to finish…." Shepard merely looked towards Wrex and nodded darkly in approval of this.

"No less than what he truly deserved," Shepard announced but he was surprised to hear Tali gasp in surprise.

"W-What happened to Fist?" Tali asked, concerned about the man who had helped her during her time of need, not hearing that this was a setup to trap her.

Shepard merely shook his head and explained all that had happened and when he was done, Tali was stunned. She had turned to the man for help and he planned on betraying her to Saren? It made her angry but then as she looked at the rag-tag group that saved her, she immediately felt grateful and she instantly knew how to help him.

And luckily, the Turian, Garrus asked "So now that we saved her, what do we do now?"

"Well…That depends on her," Shepard answered him while he turned his gaze to the Quarian, who's head rose to meet his gaze. "What do you say, ma'am? Do you mind sharing your data with us?"

The Quarian merely gazed at the Commander in response to his question before saying "O-Of course. Y-You saved m-me when I w-was c-could have b-b-been killed…A-And if it i-involves killing G-Geth….I-I'm in." Despite the stutter, he could hear the determination in her voice, causing him to smile.

At least something was the same.

"Gotta say, Commander, it sounds like she wants to help with our cause," Shepard looked at Ashley then back at the woman standing before him and awaited her answer…

Which he didn't have to wait for long because she looked up at him and said "S-She's right, I do w-want t-to help. Y-You guys saved m-my l-life and I need to r-repay you for th-that but not here…We need to get s-somewhere s-safe…."

Shepard nodded at this and for a moment, he wasn't sure where to go until Garrus said "Maybe we should go to the human embassy. Your ambassador would probably want to see what the Quarian has."

"Tali," The woman said, making all eyes turn to her curiously.

"What was that?" Kaidan asked curiously.

"My n-name…" Tali said with a small but happy tone in her voice "It's Tali'Zorah N-Nar Raaya."

Shepard smiled faintly at this and held out his hand to her, saying "Nice to meet you Tali."

Tali stared at the hand for a moment then back at Shepard before taking his hand in a gentle handshake, replying "It's n-nice to m-meet you too..." Shepard nodded at this and turned around to walk off, hearing each member of his squad introduce themselves to Tali, who responded with a kind "Nice to meet you."

'Well…That is one obstacle down. Now to get to the other part…' Shepard thought with a sigh.

Udina was going to have a fit.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Shepard, have you completely lost your mind!" Udina shouted the minute Shepard walked into the room with his future team, causing them all to blink as the man raged on. "Firefights in the wards, Tons of casualties, Fist dead and thousand dollars in damages! Do you have any idea how much money it'll take to fix all of this?!"

Shepard merely shrugged, saying "We have bigger issues than that. We found someone that can help us prove Saren's guilt."

Udina merely scowled and walked up to the commander and said "You do now huh? So tell me, who is the one who will crack open the case that leads to Saren's guilt? The Krogan? The Turian? **You?** Don't make me laugh."

Instead of replying to his ignorant questions Shepard merely moved aside and from behind him, Tali stood tall but inwardly, she was nervous. She had never been in an embassy before so this was a brand new experience.

Udina merely scowled.

"A quarian? In the Embassy? Shepard, are you out of your mind? If they catch this in here, they will kick us all out," Udina said, almost visibly repulsed at the sight of Tali, causing Shepard to frown heavily, instantly remembering why he enjoyed killing Udina so much during his time but something was bugging him.

While Udina was a prick, Udina wasn't an outright racist. He even treated Tali kindly during his period so this was a little more jarring to see.

Was his time really that different?

Regardless, he was not going to get away with those words so with a scowl, he grabbed Udina by his jacket and pulled him close so they were face to face and said in a heated tone "You listen and listen good Udina. Councilman or not, I will not allow you to speak about someone who is here to help us. Now you better apologize or I will make sure I shot the parts of you that you will be missing…"

Pushing Udina away, Shepard ignored the looks of surprise from his squadmates and turned around to face Tali to say "Please forgive him, He's not used to having to play nice but he will and not just to you…" Shepard turned around and crossed his arms while the visibly shaken Udina came walking forward and apologized to the small quarian.

"I-It's ok…" Tali murmured before Shepard softly told her to show him the information that would blow the top of Saren's plan…

"It seems our mission on Eden Prime was a huge success. This victory will bring us one step closer to the conduit…"

"And once step closer to the return of the Reapers…."

"You ask us for proof and that is how we give proof. Does anyone want to Rebuttal? This is an open discussion after all," Ashley said in amusement as Kaidan snorted in an attempted to hide his laugh, Wrex chuckled, Tali gave a small giggle and Garrus and Shepard were giving full-blown grins as they started at the stunned expressions on the Councilors faces.

Shepard couldn't help but enjoy these faces.

In his time, these three caused some massive issues for him and his missions up until the Reapers actually arrived but while they were too serious in his time, these three seemed as if they don't have their emotions completely guarded…If their shared gob-smacked look implied anything.

"As miss Williams has stated, we have bought you absolute proof of Saren's betrayal of the council, now you must do something!" Udina said as he pointed towards the three with a polite yet cocky tone in his voice, causing Shepard to merely shake his head.

And to think, this guy almost cost them their chance to show the council up.

"Udina…You…Are certainly correct in your assessment…" The Salarian councilor stated, the first to shake off his stunned expression. "We did ask for proof of Saren's betrayal and we have certainly gotten it but I wonder…Who is the female voice alongside his?"

"Matriarch Benezia…" The Asari councilor replied, almost horrified at recognizing the voice. "She is one of the most honored Asari Matriarchs in the entire Terminus System…What is she doing wrapped up in Saren's affairs?"

"And the most damning of all are these…"Reapers"," The Turian councilor said, finger quoting the word "Reaper", causing Shepard to sigh.

Even in his time, this guy does it.

"Who are they and why do Saren and Benezia want them to return? So many questions about all of this that must be answered…" The Turian councilor continued, his eyes narrowing in annoyance.

"Well…" The Asari councilor began, her blue eyes staring straight ahead at Shepard, a small, mischievous smile on her face as she said "I believe we found the person that will get those answers for us…"

Her fellow councilors were confused by her statement before they followed her gaze and felt their eyes grow in shock. "D-Do you really think Humanity is ready?" The Salarian councilor asked in alarm at this sudden realization.

"They aren't at all," The Turian councilor responded with a grumble but continued with "And as much as it pains me to say, this is a desperate time. We don't have the manpower to send anyone on this quest to hunt the rogue Spectre down and Shepard and his team took great leaps in finding the truth for us…"

"And before Nihlus perished, we were scouting him as the first Human Spectre," The Asari added on. "This is the perfect time and place to happen…It as if the Goddess planned it herself…"

"Then it is decided…" The Salarian councilor stated before turning to Shepard and saying "The Butcher of Torfan leading the charge to hunt down the Rouge Spectre…This should make headlines. Along with this news…Rock Shepard…Step forward."

Knowing the drill already, Shepard took a step forward and kneeled on one knee, his head bowed.

"The Council decides that you be granted all the powers and privileges of the Special Tactics and Reconnaissance Branch of the Citadel," The Asari councilor said with a small smile on her face. "Spectres are not trained but chosen. Individuals forged in the fire of service and battle; those whose actions elevate them above the rank and file."

Following her lead, the Salarian councilor said "Spectres are an ideal, a symbol. The embodiment of courage, determination, and self-reliance. They are the right hand of the Council, instruments of our will. Spectres bear a great burden. They are protectors of galactic peace, both our first and last line of defense. The safety of the galaxy is theirs to uphold."

Then finally, the Turian councilor added "You are the first human Spectre, Commander. This is a great accomplishment for not only you but for your entire species as well. Go forth Rock Shepard and hope to the spirits protect you and your team can bring down the threat looming in the distance."

Shepard leaned up and gave a small grin as he said "No worries, Saren will be brought to Justice and whoever these Reapers are…They will be broken…"

_'And no matter what…I will make sure that everyone makes it out alive this time…No matter what the cost…'_


	3. To Feros

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shepard starts planning for a unified team when he gets some severe news.

[Location: The Normandy  
POV: Rockland Shepard]

"So…How does it feel to not only being the first human Spectre ever and the captain of the Normandy, Shepard? Must be pretty awesome, right?" Shepard's hidden eyes gazed over to Joker's sitting form and gave a small smile.

He felt as if he was home.

This place, along with the second version of the Normandy, had been his home for so long, he honestly couldn't see himself not being the leader of the entire crew. Yeah, he was a little disappointed that Anderson was kicked to the sidelines again, but he missed leading the ship and wouldn't have it any other way.

But he had to make it seem like he was a little conflicted about it.

"To be honest, I hate the fact that Captain Anderson had to relinquish the Normandy into my command. But, at the same time, as guilty as I truly feel about all of this, I'm glad that I no longer need to follow the chain of command because what Spectre follows the lead of the captain?" Shepard told the pilot.

"Well…You shouldn't feel guilty commander, all of us know that Anderson got screwed over, and in some way, I agree with you. Kaidan told me about how he inadvertently made things a bit harder, so as hard as it was to say goodbye to him, we're not going sit here and blame you for his forced retirement," Joker told him with a severe expression.

"We're all behind you one hundred percent. Just promise me that you will lead us into an Asari spa resort to reaffirm our loyalty from time to time," Joker told him with a wry grin and a wink.

Shepard snorted.

Shepard watched as Joker activated the intercom, then turned back to Shepard and asked, "Well then, You have anything you want to say to your crew?"

Shepard nodded and stepped forward to the intercom, and took a breath before he began.

"Attention crew of the SSV Normandy, This is Commander Rockland Shepard speaking. What I'm about to tell you will be of great importance so listen well. We are on a mission to stop a group of beings that have not been seen outside the veil in over two hundred years known as the Geth. These beings are being led by a rogue Spectre known as Saren Arterius. I will not lie; this mission will not be an easy one. Not even close."

"As much as none of you want to hear this, saving everyone only happens in vids on the extranet. There will be tears, there will be blood, and there will be sacrifices abound. Being in charge means making sure I lead all of you to a greater objective in stopping Saren from getting to the conduit at all costs. That's a reality that needs to be shared by all of us. Everything is riding on our victory, and I will be damned if we fail and let him succeed in bringing back these Reapers…"

Shepard had to pause as the thought of both Sovereign and Harbinger entered his head, causing him to scowl.

Many lives were ended by these two.

He would stop them, but he knew that he couldn't be alone.

"No one man is an island, Shepard…" Thane's words echoed into his head.

He would never try to fight this alone anymore.

He needed help, and to gain it, he had to keep everyone alive this time.

"This could very well be our last mission, and I don't want anyone to walk into this with lingering doubts or regrets. Tonight, I want those who have family on the Citadel to go home, make love to your spouse. Spend time with your children and be with your family."

"I want all of you to eat and drink till your hearts are content with your friends and comrades. And if you don't have friends or family on the citadel, then phone those you care about but come tomorrow morning, we leave here. And we will fight."

"We fight for those Saren has killed in the past; we fight for those that are in danger now. And we fight for those that can perish in the future. We fight for every living, breathing being in this universe. We fight for the lost, and we will fight for the saved. Have a good night, everyone. Shepard out."

With those words, Joker canceled the feed and turned to give Shepard a look, only to blink in surprise when he found that Shepard had disappeared from his side.

"How the hell did he do that with those heavy ass boots on?" Joker asked himself.

Shepard didn't waste any time to leave what he deemed "Joker's domain" and waltzed down to the bridge where Kaidan was waiting for him. With a pat on Kaidan's shoulder, Shepard said, "Lieutenant Alenko, gather Wrex, Tali, Garrus, and Ashley and tell them to meet me in the meeting room; I need to speak with all of you,"

Kaidan nodded, but as Shepard started to walk away, he felt Kaidan's hand on his shoulder, which caused him to turn around.

"About what happened during the impromptu mission…I apologize. I was out of line…" Kadain told him.

Shepard shook his head and replied, "No harm, no foul, Alenko."

But as he stared at the lieutenant, he heard the man's faint voice in his head. "It's finished, Commander…Go back and get Williams …And get out of here…Please…go.." But the way Shepard had heard it, it was so haunting.

So broken and alone.

Of all the things Shepard could forget, Kaidan dying on Vimire was one of them.

He knew that his mind was on "Changing the outcome," but he should have realized that one of the most significant sacrifices was made by this man before him on that damn planet.

But Shepard was here to change it.

He would change Kaidan's fate.

"Now, head down to the meeting room. I will be there soon," Shepard told him with a small smile.

Kaidan nodded and retreated as Shepard made his way back to his room,

He needed to get out of this armor.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Location: Meeting Room]

"So, any idea why Shepard wanted us down here?" A concerned Ashley asked Kaidan while leaning back in her chair, her feet propped up on Kaidan's lap.

Kaidan knocked them back down to the ground and gave her a disappointed shake of his head.

Ashley stuck out her tongue out at him childishly.

Wrex saw this and murmured out "Humans," with an amused chuckle.

"I have no idea. Shepard just wanted all of us here," The lieutenant replied with a shrug of his shoulders before he glared at Ashley when she placed her feet back on his lap.

"He may w-want to go over the mission w-with us," Tali murmured, sitting in the chair farthest from everyone. "I mean, it's not every day something like this happens."

Ashley shrugged and glanced over at the Quarian and yawned lazily, leaning back on her chair.

"I just hope he gets here soon; I'm utterly exhausted from today's events," Ashley said.

Garrus couldn't help but chuckle at Ashley's comment, which caused the human female's eyebrow to quirk in annoyance.

The door opened to reveal Shepard in his standard alliance uniform and jacket with the Alliance uniform's colors.

He looked around and took stock of his team.

Garrus was eyeing down Tali.

Wrex was in the corner, looking bored.

Kaidan looked uncomfortable.

But then he saw Ashley freely speaking to Tali about something, causing the quarian to laugh, which caused Shepard to blink in surprise.

Now this was new.

His version of Ashley was near xenophobic with her hatred of aliens, but this version of Ashley freely talked and joked with Tali.

That's a refreshing change, but he was curious as to why this was occurring.

Could she have changed as well?

"I know that I said that we would have a brief shore leave, but I wanted to meet with all of you before that happened," Shepard explained as he walked to a chair that sat at the head of the table. "Now, this mission is critical. The fate of the universe rests in our hands. I know that we're a group of dogs facing off against a pack of wolves."

Garrus, Wrex, and Tali glanced at each other at the mention of these "Dogs" and "Wolves," but the Turian shrugged and looked back at Shepard, prompting Wrex and Tali to do the same.

"But I know for a fact that we can hunt down Saren and take him out, but to do that, we need to do a few things…" Shepard continued while leaning back in his chair.

"Like what, Commander?" Tali asked with a tilt of her head, which made Shepard smile faintly/

"Well, the first thing we need to work on is…" He started before leaning forward to look at all of them with a severe tone in his voice. "Unity."

This one word had caused the five members of his squad to look at him in surprise.

"I'm sure all of you know that to become a team, we need to have harmony within this squad. Because without that, we would fall into chaos and being that we are the only ones who can take out Saren, we need to have that unity. Otherwise, we'll just be handing Saren the universe on a silver platter."

He then let his words sink in before he followed up with, "This is the reason why we'll be starting team exercises from this moment on."

When Shepard finished, Wrex let out a rough bark of a laugh before glancing at Shepard and said, "Do you honestly think bonding will help our teamwork? I mean, look at your troops."

Shepard turned his head to see Ashley and Kaidan on guard with clenched jaws; then he turned back to Wrex, who continued with, "They can barely be in the same room as us without either getting scared or on edge. Given a chance, they wouldn't hesitate to take any of us down if we weren't in your presence."

"Which is why we are doing these exercises, Wrex," Shepard stood up in his chair and walked to the middle of the room and said to all of them, "I know for a fact this won't be easy for any of us. Hell, A Turian, a Krogan, and a Quarian teaming up with humans to hunt down a former top Spectre, which also belongs to one of the races in citadel space? This type of mission is damn near impossible for all these factors, but here we are. Doing part of the impossible already just by all of us being together."

"… The Council already believes we won't be able to capture him and stop his plans, and if we don't get on the same page, we will prove them right and fail. Something I will not allow. If any of you dislike the idea of working with aliens of any kind, be kind enough to tell me now. Otherwise, we can begin."

At this point, he made it a point not to look in Ashley's direction.

But she surprised him when she shrugged.

After a moment of silence, Shepard gave a small grin and said, "Perfect…Now…Before we get our team training underway, I want to discuss with all of you the three main areas we will be heading to investigate after our brief shore leave."

"And what planets are those, Shepard?" Ashley asked with a serious expression on her face, which was shared by everyone.

"The planets of Noveria, of Feros, and any planet that resides in the Knossos system," Shepard replied with a nod.

"These places…" Tali started with a confused tone in her synthesized voice, her silvery eyes gazing at Shepard, who nodded at her to continue. "What do they have to do with our mission, C-Commander?"

"Well, there have been sightings of one of Saren's accomplices. Matriarch Benezia was seen last in Noveria. In Feros, the Geth have invaded and are combating a human colony there, but we don't exactly know why the Geth have invaded that planet," Shepard explained.

"And why the Knossos system of all places, Commander?" Garrus asked.

"To find Doctor Liara T'Soni, The daughter of Matriarch Benezia and an expert on the Protheans. Dr. Tsoni was seen last in that system, but she went missing," Shepard answered. "These are out three locations."

He let the team soak this in for a moment, and once he felt that it was time to continue, he saw Kaidan raise his hand, and with a nod of approval, Kaidan said, "We should go to Noveria. If we can find Benezia, she might be able to tell us where Saren is hiding."

"I think that's a setup," Garrus replied, shaking his head at Kaidan's opinion. "Saren would know we would go after her first and may have tons of Geth to aid her. We should instead find her daughter, Dr. T'Soni. She could have valuable information about Saren plus, and she's a Prothean expert; we might need her."

Wrex bobbed his head at this and gave a reply of "Seems like the scuttle bone has a good point," with a rough but humored tone, which caused Garrus' mandibles to twitch in annoyance. "We should find this Doctor, Shepard," Wrex continued.

Ashley snorted at this and said, "She could also be working for Saren. I mean, her mother is on his side, so why wouldn't she side with them? I think we should go to Feros first since the reports do say the Geth are attacking there. Dr. T'Soni may still be safe, but the colony on Feros may not last much longer if we go after her or her mother first. Besides, maybe we can find some information about Saren and the Geth as well."

Shepard nodded in agreement at this and went to say something but then, to his surprise, Tali stuttered out, "I agree with Ashley, Commander. The lives of h-hundreds of people are in d-danger from the Geth and t-they won't stop until every last one of your species o-on that planet is dust against the w-wind."

"It seems we've come to an impasse..." Wrex said with a small chuckle.

That they had.

Shepard was left with three choices, and the least terrible one was looking for Liara.

Feros was a fucking disaster of a mission where he tried to spare people with that gas toxin, but they soon overran them, and that mission nearly killed Tali, himself, and Ashley.

Noveria was also a lousy mission because he had to watch Liara suffer through her breakdown after her mother's death.

After a few seconds of thought, Shepard looked at his team and said, "Hm Since I am the tiebreaker, I think we should go t-"

Without warning, a soldier busted into the meeting room and said, "Commander! We're receiving an SOS from Feros from Captain Shepard of the Titan!" Shepard looked in alarm.

His sister was on Feros?! What the hell is she doing there?!

She said she was on Omega the last time they talked!

"Did she explain why she was there?" Shepard asked, unable to shake the stunned tone from his voice.

"They had just wrapped up a mission on Omega when she said they received an SOS from a human colony there. She was the closest by and went…" The soldier recounted.

"From the look on Shepard's face, I think we have our first mission," He heard Ashley to Tali and Kaidan, and she was right. There was no way in hell that he was going to let his sister die, whether he knew her well enough or not, when he had the power to save her.

"Tell Joker to fire up the engines and call everyone back to the ship," Shepard told the soldier, who saluted and ran off.

"Well, team, looks like fate had a different plan for us. It looks like we're going Geth busting…" Shepard said with a clenched jaw, a scowl forming on his face.

He hated Feros.


	4. Feros

"I fucking hate Feros," Shepard raged to himself with a scowl as he bounced back and forth on his toes, his black hair sticking to his sweating face while his bandaged up fists collided against the green boxing bag in a rhythmic pattern.

Of all the missions he had to do first, it would be fucking this one.

The first time he took this mission, he thought it would be a simple "Save the colony" type mission but instead, this fucking place had space zombies controlled by an ugly looking plant with a controlled, mighty Asari warrior as its thrall.

It annoyed the shit out of him when she kept getting cloned and getting in their way to kill the monstrous plant.

But even then, they had to deal with the plant zombies, and they absorbed a large number of rounds and could move very fast.

And if that was not enough, he also had to worry about the colonist's issue. In his time, Shepard slaughtered them all when he knew there was another option, and while he killed them all last time, he would go that extra mile to save them.

And finally, there was an unknown factor, which was his sister. Shepard was still amazed that he had one in this time.

She was the hero of the Skyllian blitz.

That's all he knew.

He tried to do some research, but there was nothing else known about her before that day. Maybe she had kept quiet about their family, or perhaps they were orphans.

All he knew that she was the key of this time, and he needed her.

But then, Shepard thought about some of the other changes that he noticed so far.

In this time, he had a sister, Udina was a total racist dick, Ashley was friendly with Tali from the get-go, and hell, even the Asari counselor, was less annoying this time around.

These small changes made everything old feel new, and if that was the case here, could his missions be different as well? Before he could think on the implications of this, an amused female voice broke his train of thought.

"Wow, Shepard, you've been hitting that thing pretty hard."

Shepard turned to see Ashley wearing a look of amusement on her face as she stood there, in a basic black shirt and grey jogging pants, leaning against the doorway with her arms crossed and a smirk on her face.

"As you can tell, I am just releasing some stress right now, thinking about Feros…" Shepard told her, unable to keep the edge of anger from his voice as he uttered the name of their oncoming location. "But I suppose it can wait. How can I help you, Ashley?" He asked while unwrapping the black wrap around his left knuckle.

"I…I heard what you said about us working with Vakarian and Wrex…, And I wanted to talk to you about it," Ashley said as she moved away from the door and toward him but she then paused, as if she remembered who she was speaking too and said, "If you want that is sir."

Shepard merely sighed.

He should have seen this coming, but he wouldn't snap like he did the last time this came up. He would hear Ashley out and try to soothe her worries.

Shepard motioned for her to sit down on the bench, and once she did, he sat down next to her and said, "Speak your mind."

Ashley was silent for a few moments, but then she took a small breath and started with, "Your idea…About all of us working in unity...I'm sure you know the stigma of my last name "Williams" correct?"

Shepard nodded at this, remaining silent. "Well…I…It's hard to me to say this, but while I have a lot of issues working with Wrex and Vakarian…I don't trust them on our ship, but I know that despite this, they are here to help us of our own free will and for the good of the mission…I-I want to give your idea a go."

Now Shepard was surprised.

He expected her to talk about why she doesn't want them on the ship but instead, she was willing to make his idea work, but he was curious. Why did she want to do it? "It seems your face is very readable, Commander," Ashley said with a teasing smile on her face, causing Shepard to blink.

That was also a first.

Schooling his looks, Shepard merely asked her, "Why? Knowing your family's stigma, I would think you wouldn't trust them."

Ashley merely smiled knowingly, took out a silver locket, opened it, and revealed the picture inside of it to Shepard.

To his surprise, Shepard saw a young Ashley with three other girls, which he thought were her other sisters, and standing behind them was a quarian teenager with her arms crossed, watching them with almond-shaped silvery eyes.

What in the hell was he looking at here?

"The four girls are me, my sister Sarah, Rachel, and the youngest, Trinity. The quarian above us is our "Aunt" Talsi Orah Nar Raaya…My father met her during his last mission before returning home," Ashley began. "She was being sold as a slave by some Batarian bastards. My father immediately took them out and saved her from them. She had been in there for us since. At first, I fought against her presence, not wanting that "Alien" in our home after what had happened to our grandfather at Shanxi but when mom died later that year…"

Shepard glanced at her when she took a small breath and saw her eyes become harden, possibly to avoid showing weakness in front of him. Ashley took a deep breath and continued with, "When my mom died, I refused to talk to anyone at all because I was sad at God for taking her to heaven…All I wanted to do was be left alone to wallow, but Talsi was far too stubborn for that."

Ashley let a grin form on her face as she said, "One day, Tayu snuck into my room and hid my favorite doll in her room. I was a pissed off ten-year-old that day. I raised hell, but when Talsi returned it to me after I bitched long enough, she said to me, "Keelah, If that is what it takes to get you back to your normal self, I would have done that ages ago!""

Ashley let a laugh leave her lips as she shook her head.

"I was so furious at her for what she did, but I later realized that she was upset that I was so hurt…Her! The one person that I couldn't stand because of her race was upset that I was so sad! It was then that I realized that I was so unfair to her. I called her all the names I heard our neighbors say to her and made her life a living hell, yet she never grew mad. She was always happy and grateful for the little she had. I remembered that when I realized this, I hugged her and cried my little eyes out and apologized."

Shepard smiled at this.

"I remember her telling me that she forgave me for all that I said. I realized then that I judged both people and aliens wrong. I should judge them all by their character, not of their race. Does that mean I'll be all buddy-buddy with Vakarian and Wrex? No, but I am willing to at least get a good report with them during our Spectre hunting."

"Like you have with Tali?" Shepard asked her with a small grin on his face.

Ashley's face seemed to light up slightly at the mention of the Quarian girl and said, "She reminds me a lot of my sister Sarah. She's timid, and yet, I can see some of that fire in her like Talsi had when I was younger. I couldn't help but like her, and to make it better, she even sided with me about our mission to Feros."

Hearing the name of the planet put Shepard in a lousy mood once again, but before he could say anything, Ashley said, "Look, I just wanted to talk to you to get my feelings on the matter out, so thanks, Commander."

Shepard shook his head and replied, "Admittedly, I was concerned about how your past would interfere with what I had planned but now I see that I was mistaken and I apologize for that. I thank you for bringing this up with me Ashley."

And he meant that.

In his timeline, the Ashley he had known was nothing short of a Terra Firma member due to her hatred, but this Ashley was different but in the right way. Hopefully, she will choose to stay on his side instead of siding with Udina. Otherwise, it would make it very hard to shoot her this time.

Ashley nodded and said, "It is not a big deal. I'm just glad you didn't laugh it off as all my other commanding officers did. Besides, I told you this because you are right; we're a pack of dogs going up against a pack of vicious wolves. We need to stick together."

Looking at the clock on the wall, Ashley stood up and stretched her arms up in the air before she said, "It was nice chatting, Commander, but I better get suited up. When I was talking to Joker ten minutes ago, he said Feros was only two hours away."

And with that, Ashley walked away, leaving Shepard by himself once again, stewing over the fact that the hell known as Feros was just two hours away.

"Fucking Feros…" Shepard grumbled out, but at least he knew one thing from Ashley's story.

Perhaps some changes are necessary to make things easier.  
\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After changing into his gear, Shepard walked towards "Joker's domain" and saw Joker talking to Kaidan about their location, where he then asked, "Joker, ETA?"

Joker turned his head to Shepard and said, "Oh, that? We're approaching the planet in ten minutes, but man, the readings I'm getting from where we're landing is fucking huge. I haven't seen readings like this since we were on Eden Prime."

Joker then frowned and added, "And in the middle of those wild readings is The Titan's SOS signal, so you guys better careful. Otherwise, Pressley will become captain of this ship."

Hearing that caused Shepard to chuckle a bit before he said, "Joker, I want you to drop us off at the Hanger and get to the Titan afterward with the team I'm assigning to this mission." Shepard then glanced at Kaidan and then said, "Come on, we need to have a brief meeting before we land."

Without bothering to see Kaidan following his command, Shepard waltzed down to the bridge where Tali, Garrus, Ashley, and Wrex were, and as he stopped to look at them, Kaidan came up from behind him to stand next to Ashley.

"Ok…This mission is not going to be easy at all. We have Geth activity here, but we also need to help the Titan and any survivors within it, and we have a short time to do it, which is why I will be splitting us up. Kaidan, I want you, Wrex, and Garrus to save the Titan crew while Ashley, Tali, and myself will investigate why the Geth are here. We do this quickly and get out just as fast. I don't want any of you to become heroes and risk your lives."

"So…you're saying we get a choice not to risk our lives?" Garrus asked him.

"In that case, I would like to stay here," Ashley said with a grin.

Shepard glowered at the two before he retorted, "Unnecessarily risk your lives…The sooner we get off, the sooner we get back."

The team nodded at this, and with a small lurch, the ship landed in the hanger of Freedom's Progress, the little colony that Shepard knew was above the Thorian and his flunkies, and mentally prepared himself for the hell he was about to go through.

"Well then, Team, move out!" Shepard commanded.

The start of his redemption arc has begun.

All he needed to do was try and stay on the right path and be the hero he failed to be in his timeline. And while he knew changes were coming, he had to keep on the straight and narrow. It wasn't going to be easy; nothing was, after all. The best thing Shepard could do is save as many people in the colony as he could.

"Remember, Joker, once you rescue those on board the Titan, returning to the docking bay if you can," Shepard said as his team stood in the de-contamination room, his eyes closed and his arms crossed in thought.

"Gotcha, Commander. Alright, guy and gals, we have just landed in the hanger of Feros. Please do not come back if shit goes down; thank you all, and have a nice day. Next up, stopping the Geth attack on Titan!"

Shepard couldn't help but roll his eyes and crack a faint grin at Joker's words as he, Tali, and Ashley stepped off the ship and walked onto the balcony of the hanger, where a colonist of Zhu's hope spotted them.

"Another Alliance ship?! So soon?!" The man said as he marched up to Shepard and his squad.

Once the man got close enough, he put his hand out towards Shepard while he said, "I can't believe our little colony is getting so much help! My name is David al Talaqani, and I'm so glad to see you."

Shepard looked at the man's somewhat shaky hand and shook it briefly before letting the man's voice drown into the background.

From his experience, the Geth should be here, readying themselves to shoot David into the afterlife. Still, after five minutes of him talking, Shepard realized something was different about this situation.

In his timeline, his team had:

Gone to ExoGeni and saved a doctor that was studying the Thorian creepers.

They killed one of ExoGeni's representatives, who tried screwing them over.

They killed most of the Zhu's Hope colonists that had been taken under control by the Thorian.

And finally, they dealt with the Thorian and its Asari commando clone.

Maybe he should just bypass that altogether and just hit the Thorian itself from the start then take out the Geth…

But then Shepard realized he might not even have to take out the Geth due to Garrus, Wrex, and Kaidan going near the ExoGeni building to rescue his sister, and if she was as skilled as he was, she could take charge and lead the three to free it up.

But as David droned on, Shepard then turned to his two companions for this mission.

Ashley looked as if she would bash David's head in because he kept talking while she wanted to bust some heads.

And Tali was paying close attention to what David was saying, and considering Shepard heard the words "Geth" and "Death" leave the other man's mouth, he quickly deduced that she wanted to know more about the Geth attack.

But then Shepard paused.

Tali was on her pilgrimage!

When his team was here in his timeline, they found some information that they could use to help her complete it. And that information came in handy when he came back to life.

Perhaps he could radio one of the others and tell them if they could find any information cells and bring him all of the results.

Pressing a button on his ear, Shepard turned away from the three and said "Kaidan, this is Shepard; how far are all of you from the Titan?"

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"We aren't far at all, Commander," Kaidan replied through his comm as he walked towards the cockpit.

"It's a bit dicey, though, to be honest. There are these large ships that look like bumblebees, and they all seem to be converging at this large building," Kaidan told his commander with a small frown on his face. "Joker is barely able to keep hidden in the clouds, but I don't know how long that will last."

 _"Damn, A Geth Dropship is there…Hm…and a large building…That must be the ExoGeni Headquarters they built here on Feros…",_ Shepard said, his tone low and thoughtful. _"Any sign of the Titan yet?"_

Kaidan stopped behind Joker's seat and asked the pilot, "Any sign of the Titan yet, Joker?"

Joker narrowed his eyes in concentration as the Normandy barely avoided trading metal with the Geth before the pair looked up at the large window before them and saw the remains of a large alliance ship embedded on the side of the ExoGeni headquarters.

From the ship's looks, they were hit by a massive beam that took out half of it, leaving the remaining half of the vessel where the cockpit resided inside the building.

"That answer your question?" Joker whispered out softly.

"What the hell?" Kaidan whispered in disbelief. "What could cause that much damage to the Titan? That ship was built to withstand practically any attack, whether by human or Geth weapons.

"It'd be a shock if anyone survived," Joker breathed out.

Kaidan gave Joker a stern look and practically hissed out, "Joker! The Commander's sister was the commanding officer of the Titan."

Joker winced.

"Commander, we have located the Titan. It was practically torn in half by some major firepower," Kaidan told his leader before he narrowed his eyes.

He noticed that the torn edges of the ship were glowing a bright crimson, which startled him. It had taken them a few hours to reach Feros at high speed, and this ship looked as if it was just attacked.

"And it looks like the Titan was just hit despite us getting the SOS hours ago…" Kaidan told his commander, hoping to get some explanation for this from the man if possible.

But Shepard was completely quiet, Most likely thinking about what kind of firepower could have caused the Titan to become this damaged. _"It…It is certainly strange. Is it in the building enough where you three can board it?"_ Shepard finally asked.

Kaidan looked at the ship for a moment and replied, "It looks like we'll have to be delicate if we do. Half of it is just rocking out of the building…"

 _"Alright…Board the remains and see what you can find. And once you do, get inside the building, and if you find anything of use, information, or otherwise, bring it back undamaged if need be. We will be investigating the colony in the meantime,"_ Shepard said. _"Once you find the survivors, take the Skyway that connects the ExoGeni building to Zhu's Hope colony to come back."_

Kaidan heard his commander pause for a moment before the man added, _"If you find my sister alive, please let me know immediately."_

"Understood, Commander, Alenko out," Kaidan said before he relayed the information back to Joker.

Hopefully, everything will be ok with this mission.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 _'Be safe…'_ Shepard thought as he turned towards David, who finally finished talking and wanted them to meet with his leader, Fai Dan, who was expecting them.

It was then Shepard's eye caught a Geth trooper slowly advancing in the entranceway of the hanger, with its gun on David's back.

Shepard pulled out his pistol and yelled, "David, duck!" Seeing David duck, Shepard fired five rounds of armor-piercing ammo into the Geth trooper, causing it to fall on its knees and then the ground.

As the first Geth fell defeated, several more Geth came pouring out of the entrance. "Take cover!" Shepard commanded as he, Tali, David, and Ashley ducked to the nearest crates or walls and began to return fire on the Geth that came running out to slaughter.

After seeing five Geth Troopers fall, Shepard ran towards the nearest Geth while holstering his pistol for unholstering his shotgun. The Geth noticed this and fired at him, but his shields absorbed the shots, which allowed Shepard to run up on the machine and fire his shotgun at the machine's head.

The defeated Machine began to fall to the ground, but Shepard grabbed it by the neck and held it in front of him to absorb the bullets of a second Geth Trooper before he launched the destroyed body at the Geth, sending it to the ground. Shepard ran up to the downed machine and fired once into its headlight, shutting it down as well.

Shepard then noticed three more troopers coming towards him, and with a grin, he shot two more times at the oncoming Geth, shutting them down before motioning for his backup to follow him up the stairs.

Shepard quickly ran up the stairs and muttered "Fuck," when he saw two white blurs leaping from wall to wall. "Damn it…Geth Hoppers…Totally forgot about them," He growled out as he switched out his shotgun with his machine gun and aimed it at the white blurs, waiting for them to stop moving.

And the minute the Hoppers stopped, Shepard and his team began to fire, and while they were able to shoot down one of them, the second sprung towards David, who stood beside the railing that protected them from falling to the abyss below.

With quick reflexes that surprised Shepard, Tali landed a fatal shot to the Geth Hopper's back, but due to its momentum, it slammed into David, which caused David to tilt back on the railing.

Shepard and Ashley reached out to try to save David, but they were too late.

The dead body's momentum carried both David and the Geth over the railing and down into the abyss below, all while David screamed in horror.

"Fuck…That is a terrible way to go…" Ashley sadly murmured before she gave a small prayer to the man as the faint sound of two bodies was heard slamming against the ground below.

"I-I wasn't…I d-didn't…" Tali stammered out in horror as she took a step backward, dropping her shotgun as her hands flew to the front of her mask.

Shepard walked towards Tali, placed his hands on her shoulders, and said, "Tali, calm down. It will be ok," while looking her dead in the eye.

"B-But I-" Shepard interrupted Tali's words by shaking his head.

"It was an accident…You were trying to protect him. We weren't expecting it to leap at him like that. You did what you were taught to do, and that was to kill Geth…" Shepard told her with his eyes focused on hers, which was moving side to side in fear.

"But I-I killed him! He didn't deserve dying like t-that!" She exclaimed angrily and sadly.

Shepard understood the pain she was going through.

He had gone through it himself and knew what he needed to do. But right now, there was a mission to be done, and he required Tali to be at her best.

So he did the best thing he could do.

"Tali, if you are going to let this accident shake you up, I don't think you'll be suited to be hunting Saren with us…" Shepard told her while moving away, placing his assault rifle on his back with a frown on his face.

"W-What?! You would send m-me away?!" She asked in shock.

"Yes, I would," Shepard replied instantly, his voice coming out harshly, causing her to flinch. Pushing the guilt aside, Shepard said, "In missions like these, loss of life is inevitable. If you can't handle that, then you are not fit to be on the battlefield."

Tali's eyes narrowed in anger at this as she said, "I can handle that. Killing an ally in battle like I did is something I can't handle."

Shepard looked away and said, "Tali, there will be a time where you will have to kill an ally…" At this time, he refused to glance at Ashley nor remember his choices in killing Wrex, Samara, or the primary choice that will forever haunt him.

Not able to look at Tali, Shepard decided to look up at the sky above them while he said, "The best thing you can do is learn from it and try to better yourself, so you don't have to make that choice again…"

"And what if you have to? Does it get easier?" Tali asked him softly, the former anger in her voice dying away.

Hearing her ask this caused Shepard to close his eyes as her heartbroken voice floated into his mind, saying "I loved you," before he turned to her and with a heartbroken tone that surprised both Ashley and Tali, Shepard answered, "No…It never does…"

Shepard steeled his emotions, took a deep breath, and said with a stern tone, "Now come on, we must meet with Fai Dan and investigate what is going on," before walking past the two.

The group soon found themselves at Zhu's hope in front of their leader known as Fai Dan. Battling through the Geth had been tough, but Shepard, Ashley, and Tali stood before the man, no worse for wear.

"It's nice to meet all of you," Fai Dai said with a small bow to the three Normandy crew members.

"It is nice t-to meet you too, Fai Dan," Tali responded faintly, still a little shaken up from the incident with David.

"Now, we came here to help our fellow marines of the Titan out but also to resolve their mission in investigating what exactly is going on in this place," Shepard told him, getting right to the point of their reason for being here.

Fai Dan suddenly got nervous and stuttered out, "Listen, we need to clear out the Geth and fix our Colony before anything more can be discussed."

Shepard knew that the influence of the Thorian was heavy in this place.

As much as he wanted to burn the place down and walk away, he knew that the moment he did, Zhu's hope would be finished. He took a deep breath. "Alright…Tell us what we need to do," Shepard asked with narrowed eyes.

He truly better not regret this.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Alright, guys, don't be idiots, and don't get dead!" Kaidan heard Joker say through his intercom as he, Garrus, and Wrex stood at the exit of the ship, the wind rushing against them as they looked straight into the hollow, destroyed ship.

"Don't you mean don't get killed?" Garrus asked Joker through his headset, a look of confusion on his face.

The three of them heard Joker laugh before he replied, "I was watching this old-time movie from like the 90's called Speed. The guy always said "Don't get Dead" in it…And I just ruined the joke."

Wrex chuckled and cocked his shotgun and said with a low voice, "Don't give up your day job, Pilot."

"Yeah, yeah, everyone's a critic!" came Joker's reply.

Kaidan chuckled and took a few steps back before running at full speed towards the Normandy's opened door and leaped into the destroyed ship.

He landed on his two feet while pulling out a pistol. Garrus was the next to leap out of the Normandy and into the destroyed ship, but then Wrex was next.

With a roar of excitement, Wrex came barreling out of the Normandy and landed hard on the ship, causing it to slowly begin to tip towards Wrex's direction before settling at that tilt. "Alright, team, we need to get out of here before this ship falls out the building," Kaidan said while turning his head to glance at the two aliens.

Garrus nodded and pulled out his Sniper rifle while moving ahead to scout the area while Wrex took heavy steps towards Kaidan and said, "This place reeks of death and steel. We need to be careful." Kaidan nodded in agreement, and together, the group walked through the darkness of the wrecked Titan.

"I got a bad feeling about this," Garrus growled out, nervousness filling his multi-layered voice while steading the gun in his hand, looking around the darkness with narrowed eyes.

"As do I…" Kaidan agreed with a small frown on his face, slowly advancing through but then, a sound of something falling entered their ears, causing all of them to aim in the direction of the sound.

After a few seconds of silence, a bird came fluttering out of the ship and into the sky above.

Kaidan let out a sigh of relief and lowered his weapon while relaxing his stance, but that immediately changed when the light of several Geth shined before them.

"Take cover!" Kaidan yelled as the trio ducked for cover as shots began to ring out. Kaidan moved up from his hiding spot and repeatedly fired his pistol, nailing two Geth in the head but then had to duck as a rocket came flying towards him.

"Shit," Garrus swore while aiming at a red-colored Geth, which had a rocket launcher in hand, and fired at it repeatedly before ducking down to avoid gunfire from two more Geth.

Seeing both Kaidan and Garrus pinned down by the enemy fire, Wrex returned his shotgun to his back then pulled out a machine gun.

Wrex leaned forward from his hiding spot and fired upon the Geth that were pinning down Garrus before finishing off the three Geth that were firing down on Kaidan, suffering the loss of his shield as a result.

Being free from the attack, Garrus popped back up. They shot a Geth right in its headlight, causing its head to shatter. Garrus then leaped over the barricade that was shielding him and fired at the rocket holding Geth, which caused it to stumble back, but it quickly lifted its rock launcher towards Garrus' location.

Seeing this, Kaidan used his Biotics to lift the remains of the Titan's console and slammed it against the Geth's chest, knocking it off balance.

Wrex leaped over the barricade and charged towards the large Geth and took it off its feet with a tackle, and slammed it against the floor of the titan hard enough that the Geth's headlight flickered briefly.

Wrex took out a pistol with a low chuckle and shot it three times in the headlight, shutting it down for good.

"Man…That was pretty close…" Garrus said while returning his rifle to his back and pulling out a pistol, and moving to Kaidan, who he noticed was holding his head in pain.

Garrus was a little unsure what to do, but then he held out his hand for Kaidan, who saw this gesture and nodded in thanks before grasping his arm, prompting Garrus to lift him.

"Are you alright, Alenko?" Garrus asked with a hint of concern in his voice.

"I'll be fine, Vakarian. Thanks," Kaidan said with a genuine tone of appreciation towards the Turian. Wrex saw the display and narrowed his eyes in thought, and then he turned his head to the exit of the ship.

"We need to keep moving. I don't smell any life here, but I know there are some in this building," Wrex told them while walking forward. Kaidan and Garrus nodded and followed the Krogan while keeping their weapons drawn, not wanting to be caught off guard again.


	5. Jasmine Shepard

"Alright, Fai Dan, I have completed all the tasks that needed to get this place up and running. Time we talk about your colonists' strange behavior," Ashley said, getting right to the point when she, the Commander, and Tali reached the bald Asian man.

Fai Dan looked side to side nervously as he took a step back from the three Normandy members and said, "I'm sure it is just s-stress," with a stutter in his voice.

Shepard, already knowing the result from this and said, "Listen, Fai Dan…Surely you know something strange is going on with those around you. You see it, and you know it to be true, so why hide it? We've already helped your colony. Now help us figure out what is truly going on."

Fai Dan lowered his gaze and muttered, "I-I don't know if you guys can help…Give me some time to think about it…"

Finally tired of playing nice, Shepard bared his teeth, gripped the shirt of Fai Dan's shirt, pulled him close until they were face to face, then said, "Listen...There is no time to think about it. Either you tell us now, or we will find out what this place is hiding, and you do not want us to have to look for things…"

He knew he could have just taken them all out and found the Thorian on his own, but he'd rather not piss off them enough where the Thorian will sense them and cause them all to attack.

And if they did, he could at least knock them all out beforehand.

Fai Dan stared fearfully into the visor of the angered Shepard and said, "I-I need to think about it."

Shepard pushed Fai Dan away and let out an angry scowl, and walked off.

If he didn't want to stop what he knew was going on, Shepard would do it his own way.

He just hoped his other team is doing ok.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Wrex clotheslined a Geth so hard with a furious shout, its head flew off of its body, shutting it down instantly.

Meanwhile, Garrus was using his shotgun to fire against a Geth that had happened to get on top of him before pushing it away, pulling out a pistol and helping Kaidan get rid of the three Geth that were firing on him.

Kaidan shut his left eye and gritted his teeth as he used his biotics to launch a group of machinery at two more Geth, knocking them off their feet.

Wrex crushed the heads of the two fallen Geth beneath his feet and then launched the Geth in his hands towards the wall as hard as possible.

The Geth crashed through the wall and fell into the cloudy abyss below.

During their trek to find any survivors of the destroyed Titan, the squad of three were ambushed by a few Geth but luckily, they defeated them as quickly as possible. Panting, the three of them regrouped and took a small break.

"I have to say, we are pretty much getting our quads handed to us," Wrex growled out, not as exhausted as Garrus or Kaidan, but he was getting closer with every firefight they engaged in.

"And to make it worse, we are still not able to find any survivors of the Titan…" Garrus muttered, sitting down on a nearby crate while placing his hand on his knee with a small sigh.

Their mission was not getting any better.

It was then when they heard gunfire coming from the distance.

Sharing a glance, the three of them pulled out their respective weapons and ran to where they heard the sound of gunfire, but as they reached an entryway, the dismembered head of a Geth rolled right at their feet.

The trio looked down in alarm.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Taking on three white Geth was a black-haired, blue-eyed Japanese-Caucasian female soldier, wearing a dark blue tank top, pair of baggy black pants with one blue trim on her pants' left side, and black shoes.

The woman had two pistols on each hip, her shotgun holstered on the small of her back, and her sniper rifle was on her back.

None of those weapons were in use, Judging by the end of the woman's damaged carbon-fiber Marine NCO Sword blade that had been driven into the headlight of a Geth.

The woman then pulled her blade out and stabbed another Geth in the chest, where she then forced her sword up its body and through its head.

With a shout, she twisted her body and sliced the third Geth's head clean off of its shoulders, causing oil to spurt from its "neck" before it slumped to the ground.

Hearing the noise of four more Geth coming her way, the woman lifted the blade in her hands and threw it into the headlight of an upcoming Geth, stopping it in its tracks immediately where it then fell on its back.

Seeing a Geth to her left lifting its gun to aim at her, she lifted the Geth she defeated, stuck a grenade that was on the ground next to her, slammed it into the "eye" of the downed Geth, and kicked it towards that Geth.

Seconds later, the Geth exploded, destroying both of the Geth while she stumbled back and rolled over a desk, then pulled it on its side to shield her, just in time to avoid being turned into swiss cheese by the Geth's machine guns.

As soon as the firing ceased, the woman unholstered her two pistols, stood up, and fired at the two Geth repeatedly, nailing them both often before one fell on its knees then on the ground, defeated.

The marine hopped on the table's side, jumped towards the Geth while unholstering her shotgun, and tackled it to the ground, using the gun as a battering ram.

Once the marine landed on the ground with the Geth, she placed the gun's barrel on its head and fired, shattering it into pieces.

The marine rose to her feet, reholstered her shotgun then spat at the Geth's remains. "Damn metal-heads," she muttered before she walked towards the downed Geth that had her sword impaled in its head.

She plucked it from its socket and pressed a button on the hilt, making the blade fold back into its handle, where she placed it on her left hip beside her pistol.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Garrus, Wrex, and Kaidan ran into the room and managed to catch the marine's battle's final act and were surprised.

She had been able to take out a ton of Geth, maybe even more on her own without any armor and shields.

Wrex merely laughed and walked past the two stunned allies towards the small human woman, who was trying to recover air, and said with an impressed tone in his voice, "That was an impressive show of power."

The woman, with adrenaline still running through her veins, whipped out her shotgun, turned around and pointed it at the laughing Wrex with a distrustful look on her face. "Who are you?" she asked with a hard edge to her voice.

"Calm yourself, female," Wrex grunted out, not at all intimidated by the shotgun pointed at him. "My allies and I are here to rescue anyone that was aboard the Titan. Seeing as you are human fighting the Geth without any armor, I believe you belong to that ship."

The woman lowered her shotgun slightly and replied, "Yeah…I'm the Sole Survivor of the Titan…Commander Jasmine Shepard…And who are you, Krogan?"

The Krogan only smirked and looked back at the still surprised Kaidan and Garrus and said, "Radio Shepard, we found a survivor and get this; it's his sister!"

"Thank goodness," Kaiden sighed out in relief.

"Wow, you did good work dispatching those Geth," The turian commented with approval while nodding. "I hadn't seen anything that brutal since Shepard encountered those guys that tried to kill Tali."

Kaidan nodded in agreement, then said, "Shepard will be glad we found you, Commander. He had been worried about you since we received the SOS signal from the Titan."

"Alright…" Jasmine began, still distrustful of the situation. "If you guys are with Rocky, I guess I can trust you…Because all of this is extremely new to me…When my team and I accepted this mission, we weren't expecting Geth. So please, clue me in on what the fuck is going on."

But before anyone could say anything, a female voice above them asked, "Is it safe now?"

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Commander Shepard, Fai Dan wishes to speak with you….Alone."

Shepard, Ashley, and Tali turned to see Arcelia Silva Martinez standing in the doorway with a scowl on her face.

They had met her as she was speaking with Fai Dan when they first showed up, and she had been nothing but angry towards them, something Ashley didn't like one damn bit to the point that she referred to Arcelia as a "Rent-a-Cop" every time she saw her around the camp.

"Hey, Shepard doesn't go anywhere with you, Rent-a-Cop," Ashley stated with a frown on her face and her arms crossed. Shepard couldn't help but chuckle at how protective Ashley was of him in this place and placed a placating hand on her shoulder, causing her to look at him with a scowl on her face.

"It'll be fine, Williams," Shepard said as he got on his feet and walked towards Arcelia, but then he stopped and turned to the two women and said, "Just be careful and if things start to happen while I'm gone, handle it swiftly."

"Nothing will happen to the Hero, you bitch," Arcelia growled out while scowling heavily, causing Ashley to growl menacingly.

Tali placed a comforting hand on Ashley's shoulder, which seemed to calm Ashley down enough to glare hatefully at the older woman. Shepard gave the two a small smile and a nod before walking out of the room with Arcelia leading the way.

The two quietly entered Fai Dan's sleeping Chambers, but when the two entered his room, Fai Dan looked up and gave the two a small but strained smile. "Thank you for meeting me here by yourself, Commander Shepard."

"You wouldn't have met with me otherwise," Shepard responded with a frown on his face.

Fai Dan chuckled at this and nodded at Arcelia, who nodded and walked out the room, and not a few seconds later, the door shut behind them swiftly, leaving the two alone.

Fai Dan looked at Shepard long and hard before he shut his eyes and said, "I…I have a lot of trouble thinking on my own without this force willing me to follow its orders…"

Shepard crossed his arms and shut his eyes, instantly knowing what this force was.

The Thorian.

"Every thought I have on my own causes me immense pain, and the agony that my entire colony is going through this is infuriating Shepard…" Fai Dan explained as he rubbed his temples. "Do you know what it is like seeing your teammates, those that were under your command was under the control of some sick creature? And to make things worse, finding yourself under its control?"

"More than you or anyone else will ever know…" Shepard responded after his mind went onto the image of Jack's husk, which he had to put down, and many other examples in his past.

"Then…You know the situation you put me in now…" Fai Dan said.

"I'm not stupid, Shepard. We both know you know about the Thorian. I don't know how you know, but you do. And despite hearing the whispers of shooting you down by it, I know that you want to stop it, " Fai Dan whispered, trying to keep his voice steady despite the agony he was clearly in.

Shepard nodded his head at this slowly while leaning back on the wall as he replied with, "I do. My squad down at ExoGeni found it out and told me about the testing they had on your colony."

Shepard had to bite down on the slight grin that wanted to form on his face.

Ah, the perks of being from the future.

"I want to free you all from it, but I need your help to do it. Because if I was a betting man, once the Geth issue is taken care of, the Thorian will send all of Zhu's hope to kill my team. And if that happens and we win. You all die. If you happen to kill us, we don't know what that thing has planned for you all…."

"S-So either way, we are facing death?" Fai Dan whispered in unbearable pain.

"You are, but if you allow it, I will find a way to stop it…Without having any of your colonists die," Shepard said with conviction in his voice.

But despite his determination to change things, Shepard was a little unsure if Fai Dan was going to allow him to help or try to gun him down where he stood.

But after a moment, Fai Dan stood up and nodded.

"Y-You are right about one thing. The Thorian won't strike u-until the Geth are g-gone. D-Do what you have to do…" Fai Dan growled out with hope in his eyes, something Shepard had a feeling the man had lost until this moment.

"Good…I won't tell you when it will happen, but by the end of it, all of you will walk out of this alive," Shepard said to the man before pushing himself off the wall and walking out of the room, his mind already racing with thoughts of keeping these people alive.

And he believed he knew how.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Thank you for getting me down from there; it was disgustingly hideous in there," Lizbeth said with a grateful smile on her face, which was directed at Kaidan while she dusted off her knees, trying to get all of the dirt off her suit before giving up with a huff.

"Glad we could be of service," Kaidan replied with a wry chuckle leaving his lips before he said, "But why are you here of all places? Surely you should have been off of this planet a long time ago."

Lizbeth nodded at this but said, "As much as I wanted to be, I couldn't leave without setting things right. I was assigned to ExoGeni's study of the Thorian that infected the Zhu's Hope colonists with mind-controlling spores. I didn't want to be a part of it due to us testing living beings, and no one should be a test subject! Whether human or alien!"

While Garrus and Kaidan looked uncomfortable due to the large Krogan behind them hearing this, Wrex nodded in agreement at this, a fit of familiar anger spiking in his chest at the plight of his people.

But he willed it down for the sake of his mission.

"But instead, they punished me for these thoughts and suspended me for it…" Lizbeth continued with a frown on her face.

"I stayed behind to send a message to Colonial Affairs on Earth, in an attempt to tell them about the Thorian, but the Geth cut the power before I could transmit it," Lizbeth finished softly, clearly distraught over what she had done.

Wrex placed a hand on her shoulder and gave her a small smile, causing the younger scientist to look at him in confusion.

"You did a good thing, fledgling," Wrex told her with a nod of approval. "If only we had some people that regretted the Genophage like you regretted this. My kind may not have suffered so much."

"T-Thank you," Lizbeth murmured bashfully.

Kaidan stared at the rather kind sounding Wrex and was slightly confused by how Wrex was comforting the young ExoGeni scientist and wanted to comment on this but then something formed in his head.

"Wait, how did you two find each other? I mean, the crash happened two floors up, and I'm sure she couldn't drag you out of the ship with that much damage to it and then up two flights. No offense, Commander," Kaidan said with an apologetic tone when he talked about her destroyed ship.

"Instead of going through the fucking terror of the skyway, we decided to use our ship to get to the roof and make our way down," Jasmine explained. "But as we were heading to the roof, Geth began attacking our ship with weapons we had never seen before. Their lasers cut through our ship like butter. We barely saw it coming."

Jasmine took a small breath and shut her eyes as she said, "Several biotic users that were on my ship tried to help my pilot get it under control, but he couldn't. In the end, Zieg, m-my best friend, used all of his biotics to get me off the ship before it crashed. Luckily, it was there I found those Geth trying to catch Lizbeth."

"Yeah. I was lucky that Miss Jasmine did; otherwise, I doubt we'd be talking now. I owe you my life…" Lizbeth whispered while staring at Jasmine with a relieved smile on her face and revere, but Jasmine merely smiled and shook her head, clearly telling her that it was no problem.

"Alright. So where do we need to go now since we completed part one of our mission?" Garrus asked with a cross of his arms.

Jasmine looked down at the ground and said, "Despite losing my team, I refuse to leave a mission undone. I promised the inhabitants of Zhu's hope that I would end the Geth, and damn it, I will do it. I won't let their deaths be in vain…" Jasmine then looked at her brother's soldiers and said, "I know Shepard wanted you guys to rescue me, but that will have to wait a little while longer."

Wrex chuckled at this before he replied, "It'll be our pleasure to kill some Geth with you, Shepard."

And with those words from Wrex and a supporting nod from Kaidan and Garrus, Jasmine looked down at the floor and whispered, "Thank you…" but then she looked at the three with a determined look in her eyes as she said, "Then until I'm with Rocky, you all are under my command! Let's move out!"

The three soldiers and the scientist nodded and were about to move out to their mission together, but Jasmine then said, "Wait a minute, I shouldn't lead those who have no names…I like to know who I'm working with before I put my life in their hands."

The three looked back at her and shared a look.

She did have a point.

"I'm Urdnot Wrex, famed Krogan Mercenary, and Battlemaster, but just call me Wrex. Humans tend to say my last name wrong anyways," Wrex said with a slight chuckle.

"I'm lieutenant Kaidan Alenko of the Normandy. It is nice to meet you," Kaidan formally introduced himself with an added bow with a small smile.

"And I'm Garrus Vakarian. Resident C-Sec officer of the Normandy. I'm just along for the ride of catching Saren," Garrus said, finishing up the introductions from the three.

"A soldier, a mercenary, and a C-sec officer….I can't wait to see who else my brother managed to rope into this adventure. My name is Jasmine "Jazz" Shepard. Hero of the Skyllian Blitz and the person you three had to rescue. Now let's gear up in move out!" Jasmine said, and together, the group of five ran off to complete Jasmine's mission.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Commander, you're alright," Ashley said with a small relieved sigh leaving her mouth.

"S-She was worried a-about you, and so w-was I," Tali said to Shepard when he got fully into the room near the two.

"I apologize about worrying you two, but I have some news. I need you both to come with me to the ship as quickly as possible. I think I found a way to help these people," Shepard told them before motioning to the door behind him. Ashley and Tali exchanged glances before nodding and following Shepard out of the room.

"So, what's the plan?" Ashley questioned.

"Not yet," Shepard answered before he pressed a button on his Omni-tool, radioed Joker, and then asked, "Joker, are you there?"

 _"No, I'm sitting on a beach earning twenty percent,"_ Joker answered immediately with his familiar dry tone before he asked, _"What's up, Commander?"_

"I need Chakwas to give me the strongest anesthesia she has," Shepard said with a slight grin on his face.

 _"Do I even want to know?"_ Joker asked wearily.

"I think it's best to tell you when I get to the ship," Shepard said, his grin growing into a full-blown smirk as he motioned for this team to follow before he ran off.

This plan had to work.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"This mission is getting stranger and stranger…" Garrus whispered to both Kaidan and Wrex as the three followed Lizbeth and Jasmine through the destroyed ExoGeni headquarters.

Since they teamed up with their Commander's sister, they had seen two Geth praying to this strange orb, encountered several Geth, and, to Wrex's surprise, his brethren trying to take them down.

But the team managed to fight with them, with Lizbeth hiding from the gunfire, and by the end of it, the group's journey in this place was nearly over, and honestly, from the exhausted looks on their faces, they were glad to reach the finale of this battle.

Kneeling by a large open room at the end of the corridor, Jasmine leaned her head to the side to peek into the room and noticed Geth hoppers, Shock troopers, and regular troopers patrolling the area.

Jasmine squinted her eyes and noticed that two Geth snipers were setting up their weapons to point it at the large opening.

"Ok…Three of those springy Geth, two shock troopers, four regular Geth, and two snipers at the far end of the room…" Jasmine stated to her brother's team with a frown on her face.

"Great...this is going to bite the big one," Kaidan muttered in annoyance while shaking his head.

"Not necessarily. If we can snipe them from our position here, I think we will be fine," Jasmine said while pulling out her sniper rifle before she glanced at the three and asked, "So who else is a skilled sniper on this team?"

Garrus pulled out his sniper rifle and gave a cocky grin, and replied, "This turian dabbles in snipping every once in a while. Was top marksman in my class."

Jasmine snorted at the cocky tone Garrus took but nodded with a grin before turning to Lizbeth. "You may want to hide because this gunfight will not be a pretty one, and I don't want you to be hurt," Jasmine told her with a small smile on her face.

Lizbeth nodded and ran down the corridor and hide under some rubble that was thankfully able to cover her up. Jasmine watched her for a moment before she turned back to Kaidan and Wrex. "The two of us will supply cover fire. You two will knock those damn Geth up close," Jasmine commanded.

"Great…I hope this doesn't become the norm," Kaidan said with a small sigh while Wrex glanced at him from the side in amusement.

"What? Being put in dangerous situations or teaming up with a Krogan?" Wrex asked with a chuckle.

"Dangerous situations. I can handle teaming up with a Krogan without difficulty. Even a huge bugger like yourself," Kaidan answered instantly with a light grin, surprising Wrex slightly.

When he met Kaidan, the boy was intimidated by him, and he knew this from Kaidan's body language, yet here he was, able to team up with him without showing that fear and wasn't even afraid to banter with him.

I guess fighting in battle could do that to some people.

"Then don't fret. We'll take them out," Wrex told the younger soldier with a tilt of his head, a wicked grin forming on his face, and without any words, the two dashed out of the corridor and into the room towards the Geth who instantly raised their guns in alarm.

With a roar, Wrex instantly grabbed the head of the first Geth trooper that was close and used all of his might to crush the head before tossing it at the hopper and using his biotics to push the dead Geth and the hopper back into the wall where Wrex then ran up and fired his shotgun twice, killing the pinned hopper.

With a glow of biotic energy, Kaidan lunged his hand forward and launched a Geth back against a crate. As the Geth tried to rise, Kaidan lifted his pistol fired several shots into its body before taking the final shot at its head, terminating it.

Kaidan then spotted a Geth hopper coming towards him from the corner of his eye and suspended it in the air with his biotics.

Seeing the suspended hopper floating in the air, Garrus swiftly aimed his rifle and shot it once, causing its head to whip back as the bullet pierced through it. "One down. Think you can top that?" Garrus taunted.

Jasmine snorted at this and aimed her scope at the hopper that was leaping towards a charging Wrex and shot it just as Wrex was about to hit it, causing it to fall harmlessly to the ground.

But the bullet that took down the hopper also managed to go through the head of a Geth sniper, making it fall to the ground, defeated. "Don't compete with me, Turian. You'll find yourself losing," Jasmine boasted.

Garrus chuckled at this and said, "Challenge accepted, Shepard," before aiming at the Geth sniper that was sneaking forwards and nailed it right in the head, causing the machine's head to explode violently.

But that wasn't all that happened.

Thanks to the bullet, the pieces from the destroyed sniper's head were large enough to sail into the Geth shock-trooper next to it, causing it to fall on one knee, sparks flying from its damaged body.

Seeing his chance, Wrex charged forward and rammed his knee at the kneeling Geth's head, destroying shattering it upon impact.

"Just don't expect me to go quietly into the night," Garrus said with a smirk on his face before aiming his rifle again.

After taking out that first shock trooper, the enraged Krogan tackled the second shock trooper off its feet and onto the ground, where the Krogan began to ruthlessly slam his fist into its head, smirking in glee as the machine pitifully deactivated.

What Wrex didn't see was a Geth trooper leaping from behind a large part of cement with a pistol in its hands, readying to strike the Battlemaster down.

But Kaidan, who had tossed a Geth trooper out of the window, saw this and used his biotics to push the Geth back against the wall, where Jasmine quickly fired two shots into the side of its head, making it fly to the ground on its side.

Wrex saw this go down and glanced at Kaidan, who gave a tired grin and a thumbs up in return, his left eye closed from the intense pain he was feeling in his head.

"You have to watch your surroundings, Wrex. Never know when an enemy could strike," Kaidan tiredly said as he leaned against a destroyed pillar.

As Kaidan said this, the Geth trooper he had tossed out the window had managed to latch onto the window and pull itself up with one hand.

Wrex caught the Geth trying to point its gun at the unsuspecting Kaidan and pulled out his pistol, startling Kaidan enough to take a step back with a hint of fear in his eyes, but then he heard Wrex yell, "Get down!"

Kaidan quickly ducked down, and as he did, a bullet whizzed past the border of Kaidan's shield and nailed the Geth in the head, causing it to let go of the window and plummet down to the surface.

Kaidan looked up in alarm when he heard Wrex laughing and frowned as the Krogan stood up on his feet and shook his head from side to side. "I could say the same to you," Wrex retorted.

Kaidan snorted at this and crossed his arms with a wry grin as he said, "Touché," before he turned to see Garrus, Lizbeth, and Jasmine walking into the room as well. "We cleared them all out, but there is still the issue of getting the Geth out of this place completely…" Kaidan told them.

"Well, I know that the controls to the window shutters are downstairs," Lizbeth murmured with a cross of her arms. "I've been noticing that the claws of the dropship have been in various places of the building. With most of them coming through windows. If we can close the shutter to the window, we could dislodge the ship from the building, and that could effectively take the Geth out of action."

Jasmine nodded at Lizbeth's suggestion and said, "Yeah. And not only that, it could let us contact the Normandy as well as Rocky. But I'm sure that Geth has that spot fully guarded in case something like this were to occur…"

"True," Wrex agreed with a nod. "But we managed to fight many of them off during our time here. We are one more room away from completing the mission. We can handle these toy robots," Wrex said.

Jasmine chuckled at this and replied, "You're right…I couldn't look myself in the face if I abandoned the mission after my crew sacrificed their lives to see it through…Come on, team, we have one more push!"

**Author's Note:**

> Hello Mass Effect Fans. So this story was originally on Fanfiction.net but it was unfairly taken down for reasons that still weren't explained so I decided to post it here all nice and cleaned up! I hope you all enjoy it!


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